"C 


/iT'^ 


EARLY  DAYS 


AT 


COUNCIL  BLUFFS 


By  CHARLES  H.  BABBITT 


ILLUSTRATED 


^Jll  that  I  know  is,  that  the  facts  I  state 
Are  true,  as  Truth  has  ever  been  of  late.'''' 

—  Byron 


WASHINGTON,    D.    C. 

PRESS    OF    BVRON    S.    ADAMS 

1916 


Copyright  1916 
By  Charles  H.  Babbitt 


CONTENTS 


Pages 
INTRODUCTION :     Wherefore  and  How 5—6 

EARLY  DAYS  AT  COUNCIL  BLUFFS:  Longitude  and 
Latitude ;  First  Occupancy ;  Origin  of  Name ;  Hart 's 
Cut-Off;  Hart's  Bluff;  Bloomer  and  Gue  Histories; 
De  Smet's  Letter  to  Jones;  Hart's  Trapping  Station; 
Who  was  Hart  ?  Pottawattamie  Indians  Arrive  ;  Old 
Blockhouse  ;  Billy  Caldwell's  Village ;  Jesuit  Mission  ; 
Fort  Croghan;  Camp  Kearney;  Mormons;  Miller's 
Hollow ;  Kanesville ;  Colonel  Kane ;  Mormon  Church 
Reorganization;  President  Chosen;  General  G.  M. 
Dodge;  United  States  Land  Office;  First  "Gentile" 
Church  Edifice;  Named  Council  Bluffs;  City  Incor- 
poration ;  Townsite  Entry ;  Survey  of  Townsite ;  News- 
papers ;  First  Dram.atic  Performance 9 — 24 

POTTAWATTAMIE  INDIANS:  United  States  Acquire 
Land  in  Iowa  and  Missouri ;  Indian  Cessions  in  Illinois 
and  Indiana;  Removal  of  Pottawattamies ;  Errone- 
ously Located;  Platte  Purchase;  Arrival  in  Iowa; 
Number  Removed;  Blockhouse  Erected;  Dr.  Edwin 
James ;  Iowa  Lands  Described ;  Father  De  Smet ;  His 
Mission;  Early  Writers  Err;  Old  Indian  (Wicks) 
Mill;  Historical  Works;  Colonel  Kearney;  Sub- 
Agency  Locations;  Camp  Fenwick;  Fort  Croghan; 
Pottawattamies  Relinquish  Iowa  Lands;  Indian  and 
Mormon  Co-Occupancy;  Departure  of  Pottawat- 
tamies         25 — 40 

THE  OLD  BLOCKHOUSE:  Subject  of  Surmise;  Writer's 
Memory  Concerning ;  Bloomer 's  Description ;  Gue 's 
History;  Field  and  Reed  History;  H.  H.  Field's  Per- 
sonal Recollection ;  Spencer  Smith 's  Memory ;  Ephraim 
Huntington's  Remembrance;  Henry  De  Long's  De- 
scription ;  Appearance  in  1846 ;  Fort  Croghan 's  Rela- 
tion; De  Smet's  Barometric  Reading;  Nicollett  and 
Fremont's  Visit;  Camp  Kearney;  War  Department 
Memorandum;  Official  Records;  When  Erected; 
Jesuit  Mission  Establislied ;  Mission  Abandoned ;  Com- 
ment on  Memory 41 — 60 


4  EARLY  DAYS  AT   COUNCIL  BLUFFS 

FORT  CROGHAN:  When  Established;  By  Whom  Estab- 
lished ;  Camp  Fenwiek ;  Name  Changed ;  Log  Canton- 
ment; Flooded  by  Missouri;  Removal  to  Highlands; 
Scope  of  Name;  Original  Site;  Where  Removed; 
Bloomer's  Statements;  Hardin's  Testimony;  Section 
10;  Casady's  Farm;  Council  Point;  Casady's  Town 
House;  Duck  Hollow;  De  Smet's  Reply  to  Inquiry; 
Log  of  Steamer  ' '  Omega"  ;  Audubon 's  Visit ;  Audubon 
Returns ;  Abandonment  of  Fort ;  Writer's  Deductions ; 
General  Comment  61 — 76 

THE  MORMONS :  Arrive  at  Missouri  River ;  Civil  Govern- 
ment ;  Whither  Were  They  Going  ?  Camps  of  Israel ; 
The  Stakes  of  Zion;  Enlistment  of  Battalion;  Its 
Rendezvous;  Farewell  Ball;  Change  of  Emigration 
Plans ;  Semi-Permanent  Encampment ;  Winter  Quar- 
ters; Municipal  Government  Established;  Miller's 
Hollow;  Kanesville;  President  of  the  Church  Ap- 
pointed; Abandonment  of  Winter  Quarters;  Post- 
offices  Established;  Frontier  Guardian;  Peter  A. 
Sarpy;  Dagger's  Mill;  The  Bugle;  Orson  Hyde  and 
His  People  Depart  77—89 

POTTAWATTAMIE  COUNTY:  Temporary  Organization 
Authorized;  Organization  Effected;  Boundaries 
Changed  and  Area  Reduced;  Seat  of  Justice  to  be 
Selected;  Election  for  Seat  of  Justice  and  Officials; 
Date  and  Result  of  Election 91—96 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


MAP  of  VICINITY  of  Council  Bluffs 7 

SKETCH  MAP  of  the  Pottawattamie  Country  (1837) 23 

OLD  BLOCKHOUSE  ;  Simons  Picture ;  Bloomer  and  Gue ; 45 

OLD   BLOCKHOUSE;    Suppasititious  Picture;     Original   Ap- 
pearance!   59 

STREET  SCENE  in  Council  Bluffs  (About  1861) 90 


WHEREFORE  AND  HOW. 

For  about  forty  years  the  author  or  compiler  of  this  little  book 
has  been  a  more  or  less  regular  contributor  to  the  columns  of  the 
Daily  Nonpareil,  at  Council  Bluffs,  Iowa.  During  that  period, — 
especially  the  latter  part, — his  writings  have  been  chiefly  reminis- 
cences of  early  clays  at  and  near  that  city,  where  he  resided  in  his 
boyhood  and  early  manhood  for  twenty-one  years — 1853  to  1874. 

In  September,  1915,  he  attended  and  read  a  reminiscent  paper 
before  a  gathering  of  "pioneers"  and  "early  settlers"  of  South- 
western Iowa.  The  conversations  that  ensued  indicated  the  existence 
of  much  discrepancy  in  memory  among  those  in  attendance  and  sug- 
gested the  preparation  of  this  work. 

Entering  upon  the  necessary  research  the  writer  soon  discovered 
that  not  only  was  his  memory  defective,  but  that,  in  some  instances, 
it  presented  things  that  never  existed, — mere  figments  of  imagination. 
He  found,  also,  that  others  were  afflicted  in  the  same  manner;  that 
some  who  had  essayed  the  task  of  "history  writers"  had  become,  so 
to  speak,  "makers  of  history"  by  introducing  into  their  works  as 
real  some  of  those  imaginary  things,  and  by  setting  down  as  facts 
mere  inferences,  deductions  and  assumptions. 

Thereupon  he  resolved  that  nothing  should  be  stated  as  a  fact  in 
this  work  that  might  not  be  authenticated  b}^  either  conclusive  or 
very  convincing  evidence,  and  in  the  preparation  of  this  booklet  he 
has  been  controlled  and  guided  by  that  resolution. 

While  it  has  not  been  possible  to  secure  absolutely  conclusive  testi- 
mony in  support  of  each  and  every  incident  herein  recorded,  and 
some  inferences,  deductions  and  assumptions  have  been  unavoidable, 
he  has  endeavored  to  present  only  such  of  these  as  may  be  corroborated 
or  sustained  by  reasonably  strong  circumstantial  evidence,  and  where 
introduced  they  are  distinctly  set  down  for  what  they  are.  Where 
matters  are  stated  as  facts,  they  are  facts. 

Instead  of  simply  stating  the  facts  in  his  own  language  and  re- 
ferring in  footnotes  to  the  authorities  from  whence  they  have  been 
gleaned,  as  per  the  custom  of  professional  historians,  the  writer  has 
incorporated  and  quoted  the  original  sources;  in  other  words,  he  has 
allowed  the   authorities  to  tell  their   own   stories,    and   has   merely 


6  EARLY  DAYS  AT  COUNCIL  BLUFFS 

pointed  out  to  those  who  may  wish  to  pursue  the  matter  what  the 
authorities  are  and  where  they  may  be  found.  It  is  his  belief  that 
this  course  will  prove  more  satisfactory  to  the  general  reader,  to  whom 
the  source  of  many  quotations  and  citations  made  are  absolutely  un- 
attainable. Some  of  the  matters  quoted  have  never  before  been  pub- 
lished in  any  form,  and  the  records  containing  them  are  not  con- 
veniently accessible  to  the  general  publi,. 

It  is  not  the  purpose  of  this  work  to  present  a  commercial  and 
personal  history  of  early  days  at  Council  Bluffs,  its  scope  being  re- 
stricted to  substantially  the  period  between  the  coming  of  the  Potta- 
wattamie Indians  to  Southwestern  Iowa  and  the  general  exodus  of  the 
Latter  Day  Saints  from  the  locality — that  is  between  1835  and  1853, 
though  for  the  completion  of  some  subjects  events  as  late  as  1857  are 
necessarily  incorporated. 

For  assistance  rendered  and  information  furnished  the  writer 
acknowledges  obligation  to  Rev.  Henry  De  Long,  Hon.  H.  H.  Field, 
Hon.  Spencer  Smith,  Ephraim  Huntington,  City  Engineer,  E.  E. 
Spetman,  William  H.  Campbell,  Theodore  Guittar,  James  N.  Casady, 
and  W.  S.  Cooper,  of  Council  Bluffs;  Hon.  Frank  Shinn,  of  Carson; 
General  Hiram  Martin  Chittenden,  of  Seattle,  Washington;  Rev. 
G.  J.  Garraghan,  of  the  University  of  St.  Louis;  Anthon  H.  Lund, 
Latter  Day  Saints  Historian,  A.  Wm.  Lund  and  Andrew  Jensen, 
Assistant  Historians,  and  Edgar  S.  Hills,  of  Salt  Lake  City;  Ben- 
jamin F.  Shambaugh,  Superintendent,  and  Jacob  Van  der  Zee,  State 
Historical  Society  of  Iowa,  Iowa  City;  Edgar  R.  Harlan,  Curator, 
Historical  Department  of  Iowa,  Des  Moines;  Albert  Watkins,  His- 
torian, Nebraska  State  Historical  Society,  Lincoln ;  Rev.  Michael  Shine, 
Plattsmouth,  Nebraska;  officials  of  the  War  Department,  Post  Office 
Department,  and  Bureau  of  Indian  Affairs,  Washington,  D.  C. 

If  the  work  shall  serve  in  any  degree  to  preserve  the  truth  of 
history,  that  shall  be  the  compiler's  reward;  for  such  errors,  defects 
or  imperfections  as  may  appear,  the  responsibility  in  his. 

Charles  H.  Babbitt. 

Washington,  D.  C,  October  21,  1916. 


EARLY  DAYS   AT   COUNCIL   BLUFFS 


Scale  2  Inch  =  I  Mile 
i_ ! __? |L 


MAP  OF  THE  VICINITY  OF  COUNCIL  BLUFFS 


EARLY  DAYS   AT  COUNCIL   BLUFFS 


MAP  OF  THE  VICINITY  OF  COUNCIL  BLUFFS. 

This  map,  or  diagram,  has  been  prepared  from  the  plats  of  surveys 
made  in  1851-1852  by  the  United  States  Government,  and  from  other 
sources  of  information  deemed  reliable.  It  shows  the  west  two-thirds 
of  each  of  the  townships  74  and  75,  range  43,  and  all  of  each  of 
the  fractional  townships  74  and  75,  range  44, 

All  points  laid  down  thereon,  except  Camp  of  Mormon  Battalion, 
Hart's  Trapping  Station.  Caldwell's  Village,  and  Omega  Landing — 
1843,  are  fixed  in  accordance  with  the  records  of  the  General  Land 
Office.  The  locations  of  the  Old  Blockhouse  and  Caldwell's  Village 
have  been  indicated  from  records  found  in  the  Indian  Bureau  and 
War  Department,  and  various  concurrent  sources  of  information.  The 
locations  of  the  Omega  Landing  and  Hart's  Trapping  Station  are 
shown  as  supposed  to  be  from  historical  writings  found  to  have  bearing 
in  relation  thereto.  The  Camp  of  the  Mormon  Battalion  is  shown  to 
be  located  as  indicated  upon  information  by  Rev.  Henry  De  Long, 
and  by  writings  of  Colonel  Thomas  L.  Kane  and  others  made  at  the 
time.  The  authorities  are  more  fully  described  in  the  text  of  the 
book. 


EARLY  DAYS  AT  COUNCIL  BLUFFS. 

About  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century  the  site  of  the 
present  city  of  Council  Bluffs,  Iowa, —  (longitude  18°  48'  west  from 
Washington,  95°  50'  west  from  Greenwich,  and  41°  15'  north  lati- 
tude)— was  occupied  by  the  village  of  a  tribe  or  band  of  aborigines 
known  as  the  "Ayauway  (Iowa)  Indians"  which  is  mentioned  in  the 
"History  of  the  Expedition  of  Captains  Lewis  and  Clark,  1804-5-6; 
reprinted  from  the  edition  of  1814;  with  Introduction  by  J.  K. 
Hosmer.  Chicago.  A.  C.  MeClurg  &  Co.  1902",  and  indicated  on 
a  map  accompanying  that  work.  It  appears  from  the  journal  of  the 
expedition  kept  at  the  time  that  Captains  Lewis  and  Clark  camped 
July  27,  1804,  on  the  west  (right)  bank  of  the  Missouri  river,  slightly 
to  the  north  and  west  from  the  point  at  which  the  original  town  was 
located  some  forty-two  years  later. 

The  name  is  derived  from  "Council  Bluff",  a  hill  near  the  present 
village  of  Fort  Calhoun,  Nebraska,  at  the  foot  of  which  was  held  a 
council  with  some  Indians  by  Lewis  and  Clark.    Their  journal  says : — 

"The  incidents  just  related  induced  us  to  give  this  place 
the  name  of  the  Council  Bluff." 

Subsequently  "the  Council  Bluff"  was  used  by  early  traders, 
trappers  and  navigators  of  the  Missouri  river,  and  by  government 
officials,  to  indicate  the  site  of  that  council,  and  later  the  final  word 
became  pluralized  and  the  term  "the  Council  Bluffs"  was  applied 
to  the  entire  region  of  country  between  the  (Jouncil  Bluff  and  the 
mouth  of  the  Platte  river,  the  designation  appearing  upon  all,  or 
nearly  all,  early  maps  in  connection  with  the  range  of  hills  on  the 
west  (right)  bank  of  the  Missouri  river  between  the  points  mentioned. 
The  early  history  of  the  region  contains  very  little  regarding  the 
territory  on  the  east  (left)  bank  of  the  river,  because  that  history  re- 
lates, primarily,  to  the  affairs  of  the  several  fur  companies  doing 
business  along  the  stream,  and,  with  the  solitary  exception  of  the 
trading  establishment  of  Robidoux,  Papin,  Chouteau  &  Berthold,  at 
the  mouth  of  the  Nishnabotna,  none  of  the  trading  houses  were  on 
that  side. 

When  an  Indian  agency  for  the  Otoes,  Pawnees  and  Omahas  was 


10  EARLY  DAYS   AT  COUNCIL   BLUFFS 

established  at  Bellevue,  where  previously  a  sub-agency  under  the 
Agent  at  Fort  Leavenworth  had  existed,  it  became  known  as  "the 
agency  of  the  Council  Bluff ' ',  and  subsequently  as  the  Council  Bluffs 
agency.  By  treaty  of  September  26  and  27,  1833,  the  Pottawattamie 
Indians  of  Illinois  and  Indiana,  together  with  the  Chippewas  and 
Ottawas,  with  whom  they  were  affiliated,  ceded  their  possessions  in 
those  States  and  were  assigned  territory  for  a  new  home  in  south- 
western Iowa,  but  through  errors  of  the  emigrating  agents  those  who 
removed  in  1835,  1836  and  early  1837  were  carried  into  territory 
now  in  the  northwestern  part  of  the  State  of  Missouri,  opposite  and 
near  to  Fort  Leavenworth.  They  were  removed  to  their  own  lands, 
in  Iowa,  in  1837,  and  the  Council  Bluffs  Sub-agency  was  established 
at  a  point  about  one  mile  above  the  mouth  of  the  Platte  river,  on 
the  east  (left)  bank  of  the  Missouri,  which  was  under  the  juris- 
diction of  the  agency  at  Bellevue.  Later  (about  1843)  the  sub-agency 
offices  were  moved  up  the  river  to  Point  aux  Poules  (Point  of  the 
Pulls),  opposite  Bellevue,  afterward  known  as  Trader's  Point,  and 
there  are  indications  that,  before  those  Indians  removed  from  the 
region,  the  sub-agency  offices  were  removed  to  or  near  what  was  after- 
ward known  as  Council  Point.  A  trading  post  was  established  at 
Trader's  Point  about  the  time  that  the  Pottawattamies  came  to  the 
country  which  was  known  as  Hamilton's,  and  Peter  A.  Sarpy,  agent 
for  the  American  Fur  Company  at  Bellevue,  soon  afterward  opened 
a  branch  of  his  concern  at  the  same  place. 

There  is  tradition,  supported  by  much  circumstantial  evidence  of 
convincing  character,  to  the  effect  that  one  Hart  or  Heart  had  a 
trading  or  trapping  station  at  an  early  day  (some  say  as  early  as 
1824,  and  the  writer  here  believes  it  was  established  before  that), 
at  or  very  near  the  site  of  the  present  city  of  Council  Bluffs,  and  that 
the  adjacent  hills,  as  well  as  those  in  and  among  which  the  original 
town  was  built  were,  for  that  reason,  known  to  the  early  traders, 
trappers  and  navigators  of  the  Missouri  river  as  "Hart's  Bluffs" 
(Cotes  a  Hart). 

No  record  has  been  found  to  indicate  in  any  manner  that  this 
Mr.  Hart  was  in  any  way  connected  with  the  American  Fur  Company 
or  any  of  its  predecessors,  subsidiaries  or  successors;  nor  does  liis 
name  appear  in  any  of  the  published  official  lists  of  independent 
traders  licensed  or  granted  permits  by  the  United  States  government. 
If  he  were  a  white  man  trading  on  his  own  account  with  the  Indians 


EARLY  DAYS  AT  COUNCIL   BLUFFS  11 

in  the  vicinity  without  a  license,  he  would  have  been  reported  to  the 
Indian  Department  by  the  other  traders  upon  whose  privileges  he 
would  have  been  intruding,  such  as  Roye,  on  the  site  of  the  original 
city  of  Omaha;  Pratt,  on  the  site  of  Florence;  Cabanne,  a  few  miles 
above,  and  Manuel  Lisa,  near  the  old  Council  Bluff.  But  there  is 
no  record  of  such  proceeding. 

It  seems  to  be  a  fact,  nevertheless,  that  someone  named  Hart  or 
Heart  did  conduct  a  trading  house  or  trapper's  station  at  the  indi- 
cated point  prior  to  1832.  As  late  as  1843  notes  in  the  American 
Pur  Company's  steamboat  logs  bore  mention  of  "Hart's  Cut  Off" 
and  "Hart's  Bluffs". 

The  precise  spot  on  which  Hart's  establishment  stood  is  not  posi- 
tively known,  and  may  not  at  this  late  day  be  located  with  absolute 
certainty.  In  Annals  of  Iowa  (Volume  9,  page  526,  1870-1871)  D.  C. 
Bloomer  said  that  a  trading  point — 

"was  situated  as  early  as  1824  at  what  was  in  those  days  known 
as  'Hart's  Bluffs',  from  a  Frenchman  who  located  there,  and 
which  is  found  upon  inquiry  to  have  been  a  place  in  the  city 
of  Council  Bluffs  known  as  Mynster  Spring. ' ' 

Hon.  B.  F.  Gue,  in  his  "History  of  Iowa",  writing  of  Pottawattamie 
Comity,  said: 

"The  first  town  laid  out  was  called  Hart's  Bluff  and  stood 
on  the  present  site  of  Council  Bluffs." 

Unfortunately  neither  of  these  historians  gave  any  tangible  authority 
or  source  of  information  upon  which  his  statement  was  based,  and 
those  of  the  latter  were  probably  simply  appropriated  from  the  works 
of  earlier  writers.  Surely  there  is  no  evidence  now  extant  to  confirm 
the  fact  that  a  "town  was  laid  out"  at  the  point  and  time  referred 
to  by  Gue.  He  probably  misread  the  writing  of  some  earlier  historian 
to  whom  he  failed  to  give  credit. 

Mr.  Bloomer's  statement  is  founded,  manifestly,  upon  tradition 
and  hearsay.  He  says,  "which  is  now  found  upon  inquiry",  but 
does  not  say  of  whom  inquiry  was  made.  It  might  be  inferred  from 
other  matter  in  the  article  quoted  that  he  derived  his  information  from 
Mr.  Francois  Guittar,  who  had  long  been  familiar  with  the  locality. 
Even  if  this  inference  be  correct,  the  facts  are  not  conclusively  estab- 
lished. Although  Mr.  Guittar  may  have  mentioned  Mynster  Spring 
as  the  site  of  Hart's  establishment,  he  used  that  object  as  the  place 


12  EARLY  DAYS   AT   COUNCIL   BLUFFS 

most  prominent  in  the  vicinity  of  Hart's  plant,  without  meaning  that 
it  was  the  precise  spot.  There  was  then  no  suitable  site  immediately 
at  the  spring  for  a  trading  house. 

The  best  evidence  found  by  the  writer  tending  to  convincingly  prove 
that  Hart's  trading  house  was  near  the  site  of  the  present  city  of 
Council  Bluffs,  is  contained  in  a  letter  addressed  to  A.  D.  Jones,  of 
Omaha,  by  Father  De  Smet,  December  28,  1867.  Mr.  Jones  submitted 
to  the  celebrated  Missionary  several  inquiries,  of  which  one,  with  the 
answer,  was  as  follows: — 

"(Question)  There  is  an  earthen  remain  of  fortifications 
on  the  east  bank  of  Omaha ;  do  you  know  who  built  it  ? 

"  (Answer)  The  remains  alluded  to  must  be  the  site  of  the 
old  trading  post  of  Mr.  Heart.  When  it  was  in  existence  the 
Missouri  river  ran  up  to  the  trading  post.  In  1832  the  river 
left  it,  and  since  that  time  it  goes  by  the  name  of  'Heart's 
Cut-Off',  leaving  a  large  lake  above  Council  Bluffs  City." 

(See  Chittenden  and  Richardson's  De  Smet,  Volume  4,  Page 
1353;  also  Volume  I,  Nebraska  Historical  Society's  report.) 

The  writer  of  this  work  resided  at  Council  Bluffs  from  June  4,  1853 
to  June  4,  1874,  continuously,  and  from  about  1855  or  1856  to  the 
date  last-before  mentioned  was  very  familiar  with  the  lake  referred 
to — called  Big  Lake — now  Iowa  Lake — and  with  its  surroundings, 
having  hunted  game  all  around  its  shores  and  over  the  adjacent  hills. 

Mynster  Spring,  lies  back  in  the  hills  a  short  distance  from  the 
eastern  shore  of  the  old  river  bed — the  original  lake  bed — and  less 
than  one-half  mile  to  the  north  and  east,  over  a  high  and  sharp  ridge 
— "hog  back" — there  was  a  confluence  of  two  other  live  springs  of 
lesser  importance  and  smaller  water  flow,  situated  in  a  broad  valley 
among  the  bluffs,  from  which  flowed  a  brooklet  of  fair  proportions 
that  entered  the  original  lake  bed,  from  which  the  water  had  partly 
receded,  probably  one  hundred  yards  north  from  where  the  Mynster 
Spring  came  out  of  its  little  gorge,  and  followed  along  the  foot  of  the 
bluff  for  a  considerable  distance  northwesterly  entering  the  shrunken 
lake  an  eighth  of  a  mile  or  more  above  the  mouth  of  the  Mynster 
Spring  branch,  th(!  trend  of  the  latter  being  southwesterly  from  the 
foot  of  the  blufT  wlicre  it  emerged. 

At  the  confluence  of  springs  just  mentioned — less  than  a  half  mile 
from  the  lake  shore  as  it  was  in  1855,  and  much  nearer  the  original 
bank — were  the  remains  of  buildings  of  considerable  size,  surrounded, 
or  partly  so  then,  by  what  appeared  to  have  been  a  sod  fence  within 


EARLY  DAYS  AT  COUNCIL  BLUFFS  13 

the  enclosure  of  which  had  been  included  the  meeting  of  the  springs. 
The  area  of  land  embraced  in  the  original  enclosure  had  been  two  or 
more  acres,  and  there  were  indications  that  at  a  period  long  before 
the  enclosed  land,  together  with  quite  a  quantity  outside  of  the  en- 
closure, had  been  cultivated.  When  passing  through  this  place  for 
the  first  time,  accompanied  by  his  father,  on  a  duck-hunting  trip  to 
the  lake,  the  writer  was  informed  that  the  remains  mentioned  marked 
the  site  of  an  old  Indian  trading  post. 

This  site  corresponds  very  closely  with  Father  De  Smet's  all  too 
brief  reference  to  "Heart's  trading  post",  and  does  not  seriously 
conflict  with  the  location  described  by  Mr.  Bloomer.  At  the  time  to 
which  reference  is  here  had  nearly  twenty-five  years  had  elapsed  sub- 
sequent to  the  change  of  river  channel  by  which  were  formed  the  lake 
and  cut-off  mentioned  by  Father  De  Smet  in  his  letter  to  Mr.  Jones. 
During  that  period  the  waters  of  the  lake  had  been  receding  and  the 
springs  had  been  busy  carrying  down  from  the  hills  and  depositing 
large  quantities  of  silt  upon  the  delta — part  of  the  old  river-bed  lake — 
so  that  considerable  land  had  been  formed  between  the  bluff  and  the 
then  existing  lake  shore. 

If,  as  the  writer  verily  believes.  Hart's  establishment  was  located 
at  the  confluence  of  springs  above  mentioned,  the  line  of  the  bluffs 
being  the  shore  of  the  river  at  the  time  the  post  was  erected — perhaps 
thirty  years  or  more  before  the  writer  saw  the  place — the  trapping 
station  was  only  a  short  distance  from  the  river  bank.  The  "remains" 
referred  to  by  Father  De  Smet  are  believed  to  be  the  same  as  men- 
tioned herein  as  a  "sod  fence";  and  that  the  place  was  "the  site  of 
the  old  trading  post  of  Mr.  Heart",  is  not  improbable. 

It  must  not  be  assumed  that  the  term  "Hart's  Bluffs"  of  the  early 
traders  and  voyageurs  was  applied  to  any  one  bluff  or  hill  in  par- 
ticular, but  rather  to  the  entire  range  of  bluffs  extending  from  the 
Indian  creek  delta,  wherein  the  original  town  of  Council  Bluffs  was 
built,  to  the  delta  above,  through  which  Pigeon  and  Honey  creeks 
and  the  Boyer  river  pass  out  from  the  hills  and  into  the  Missouri. 
The  same  mentioned  by  Lewis  and  Clark  as  "the  first  highlands  that 
approach  the  river  on  that  side  since  we  left  the  Nodaway". 

So,  while  it  is  not  conclusively  established,  there  is  at  least  very 
convincing  evidence  to  indicate,  that  the  first  distinctive  name  given 
to  the  site  of  the  present  city  of  Council  Bluffs ;  that  by  which  it  was 
designated  and  differentiated  by  the  traders,  trappers  and  steamboat 


14  EARLY  DAYS   AT  COUNCIL   BLUFFS 

men  from  other  similar  situations  along  the  Missouri  river,  was 
"Hart's  Bluffs". 

Who  was  this  "Hart"  or  "Heart"  whose  name  became  attached 
to  the  locality  in  question  ? 

Messrs.  Bloomer,  Gue,  and  others  whose  works  relating  to  the  place 
have  come  under  the  inspection  of  the  writer,  all  say  that  he  was  a 
"Frenchman".  However,  none  of  them  give  any  authority  for  the 
assertion,  nor  does  any  of  them  appear  to  have  definite  knowledge 
respecting  him.  Their  information  about  him  is  vague,  to  say  the 
least,  and  apparently  based  entirely  upon  hearsay,  legend  and  tra- 
dition. 

A  most  diligent  and  careful  search  of  the  governmental  and  other 
records  pertaining  to  the  early  traders  and  trappers  operating  in 
this  region,  as  far  back  as  1810,  fails  to  disclose  anything  by  which 
the  identity  of  "Hart"  or  "Heart"  may  be  indubitably  established. 

Incorporated  in  "Thwaite's  Early  Western  Travels"  is  the  report 
of  Long's  Expedition  to  the  Rocky  Mountains,  by  Dr.  Edwin  James, 
secretary.  In  that  portion  of  the  paper  relating  to  the  "Winter 
Cantonment",  near  "Camp  Missouri" — (otherwise  known  as  Fort 
Atkinson  and  Fort  Calhoun) — has  been  found  (Vol.  14,  Chap.  9, 
page  250)  a  possible  identification  of  the  mysterious  person  from 
whom  the  names  of  "Hart's  Bluff"  and  "Hart's  Cut  Off"  may  have 
been  derived.    It  is  the  following : — 

"The  principal  Iowa  chief  was  once  at  our  camp;  he  is  a 
very  intelligent  Indian,  with  solemn  dignity  of  deportment, 
and  would  not  deign  to  enter  our  houses  or  even  to  approach 
them  until  invited.  He  is  said  to  have  more  intimate  knowledge 
of  the  manners  of  the  whites  than  any  other  Indian  of  the 
Missouri  and  to  be  acquainted  with  many  of  the  words  of  our 
language,  but  will  not  willingly  make  use  of  them  fearing  to 
express  himself  improperly,  or  not  trusting  his  pronunciation. 
He  remained  near  Council  Bluffs  in  the  autumn,  in  order  to  be 
present  at  the  councils  with  the  different  nations,  and  to  observe 
the  conduct  of  the  whites  toward  them  respectively,  a  consider- 
able time  after  his  nation  had  departed  down  the  river  to  their 
beaver  trapping.  After  this  he  went  with  his  family  to  the 
headwaters  of  the  Boyer,  and  during  their  stay  there  trapped 
163  beaver;  when  with  us  he  was  about  to  go  in  search  of  his 
people.     .     .     . 

"This  Indian  is  known  by  several  names,  as  Grand  Batture, 
Hard  Heart,  Sandbar,  and,  in  his  own  language,  as  Wang-e- 
waha.     During  our  late  contest  with  Great  Britain  he  turned 


EARLY  DAYS  AT  COUNCIL  BLUFFS  15 

his  back  upon  his  nation  in  consequence  of  their  raising  the 
tomahawk  upon  our  citizens,  and,  crossing  the  Missouri,  united 
his  destiny  with  the  Otoes.  Last  autumn  his  nation  joined  him 
and  submitted  to  his  guidance;  so  that  the  Otoes,  Missouries, 
and  lowas  were  then  united." 

One  of  the  parties  who  signed  the  treaty  of  October  15,  1836,  at 
Bellevue,  by  which  the  lowas,  Otoes  and  Missourias  completed  the 
cession  of  the  triangle  of  land  in  northwestern  Missouri  known  as 
the  ' '  Platte  Purchase ' ',  was  ' '  No  Heart ' ',  whose  aboriginal  name  does 
not  appear;  and  he  signed  as  an  Iowa  Chief. 

From  ''Hard  Heart"  to  "No  Heart"  is  not  a  far  change,  nor 
would  it  be  a  surprising  one.  The  terms  have  practically  the  same 
significance  and  were  readily  interchangeable  under  the  circumstances 
of  the  lives  of  those  people. 

It  was  of  the  winter  of  1819-1820  that  Dr.  James  wrote,  after  or 
during  which,  the  Indian  mentioned  "went  with  his  family  to  the 
headwaters  of  the  Boyer"  and  engaged  in  trapping.  In  the  legends 
and  traditions  relating  to  "Hart's  trading  house  at  the  site  of  Council 
Bluffs"  the  date  of  its  founding  is  said  to  have  been  "as  early  as 
1824".  Now,  a  study  of  the  topography  of  the  country  adjoining  the 
Boyer  river  valley  should  make  it  clear  that,  at  no  point  other  than 
that  herein  set  out  as  the  probable  site  of  ' '  Hart 's  trading  or  trapping 
station"  would  there  then  have  been  found  as  good  accommodations  for 
such  an  establishment.  There  is  no  other  place  on  the  east  (left)  side 
of  the  Missouri  river  within  one  hundred  miles  of  the  mouth  of  the 
Boyer,  where  at  that  time  existed  so  fine  a  situation  for  the  trading 
or  trapping  station  of  one  operating  in  that  region ;  well  protected  as 
it  was  from  weather,  as  well  as  against  the  encroachment  of  enemies 
or  competing  operators,  immediately  on  the  bank  of  the  Missouri 
and  only  a  few  miles  below  the  mouth  of  the  Boyer. 

No  stretch  of  imagination  is  required,  nor  is  it  a  violent  presumption, 
to  assume  that  this  "intelligent  Indian  chief"  who  expatriated  himself 
and  became  affiliated  with  the  Otoes,  in  whose  country  the  site  men- 
tioned then  was,  actually  established  his  headquarters  at  that  point; 
and  the  fact  that  he  was  known  to  be  in  occupancy  thereof  and 
operating  a  trading  or  trapping  station  there,  would  have  furnished 
good  reason  for  the  application  of  the  names  "Hart's  Bluffs"  to  the 
adjacent  hills  and  of  "Hart's  Cut-Off"  to  the  new  channel  formed  by 
the  Missouri  river  when  it  receded  to  the  westward.     There  appears 


16  EARLY  DAYS  AT  COUNCIL  BLUFFS 

to  the  writer  good  presumptive  evidence  to  support  the  belief  that 
this  Indian  gave  the  locality  its  name. 

In  1837  the  Pottawattamie,  Ottawa  and  Chippewa  Indians,  removed 
from  Illinois  and  Indiana,  who  had  been  residing  upon  what  was 
known  as  the  "Platte  Purchase",  in  Missouri,  were  brought  to  their 
new  homes  in  Iowa,  and  the  Village  of  one  of  their  principal  chiefs, 
Billy  Caldwell,  became  located  and  a  blockhouse  was  undoubtedly 
erected  on  the  very  site  of  the  present  city  of  Council  Bluffs.  Billy 
Caldwell  died  there  September  27,  1841.  (See  Pottawattamie 
Indians.) 

May  31,  1838,  a  Jesuit  Mission  was  established  at  the  place  by  the 
renowned  Father  Pierre-Jean  De  Smet,  in  connection  with  which 
the  blockhouse  was  used.  Father  De  Smet  was  transferred  elsewhere 
in  1839  and  in  July  or  August,  1841  the  mission  was  abandoned.  (See 
Old  Blockhouse.) 

Mr.  J.  N.  Nicollet,  accompanied  by  Lieutenant  John  C.  Fremont, 
of  the  Corps  of  Topographical  Engineers,  made  explorations  in  the 
Missouri  river  valley  in  1838  and  1839,  and  the  place  now  occupied 
by  the  city  of  Council  Bluffs  was  referred  to  in  the  report  of  the  ex- 
pedition published  by  the  War  Department  in  1843,  as  "Camp 
Kearney",  which,  it  is  believed  by  the  writer,  was  the  name  given  by 
the  explorers  to  their  engineer  encampment  in  that  vicinity,  although 
no  specific  mention  of  such  encampment  has  been  found. 

In  1842  a  company  of  dragoons,  under  the  command  of  Captain 
John  H.  K.  Burgwin,  was  sent  from  Fort  Leavenworth  to  protect  the 
Pottawattamie  Indians  against  threatened  attack  by  the  Sioux.  Its 
encampment,  named  ' '  Camp  Fenwick ' '  which  was  afterward  changed 
to  "Fort  Croghan",  was  located  somewhere  in  the  vicinity  of  the  old 
steamboat  landing,  about  five  miles  south  of  the  site  of  the  old  block- 
house; but,  on  account  of  high  water,  was  removed  in  the  spring  of 
1843  to  the  highlands,  and  was  abandoned  October  6,  1843.  (See 
Fort  Croghan.) 

Upon  the  arrival  of  the  Mormons,  June  14,  1846,  on  their  way 
to  the  "New  Zion",  a  battalion  of  troops  was  recruited  from  their 
number  at  the  site  of  the  present  city  of  Council  Bluffs  and  sent  to 
the  Mexican  war,  and  a  semi-permanent  camp  was  established  at  the 
place  by  the  emigrating  Latter  Day  Saints.  One  of  their  number, 
Henry  W.  Miller,  settled  a  short  distance  west  from  the  old  block- 
house, where  a  village  soon  took  form  and  was  given  the  name 
"Miller's  Hollow". 


EARLY  DAYS  AT  COUNCIL  BLUFFS  17 

Upon  petition  presented  by  Brigham  Young  a  postoffiee  named 
"Kane"  was  established  at  Miller's  Hollow  January  17,  1848,  and  at 
a  conference  meeting  of  the  Saints  held  April  8,  1848,  in  the  "Log 
Tabernacle"  at  Miller's  Hollow,  a  resolution  was  adopted  changing 
the  name  of  the  village  to  "Kanesville".  This  action  was  taken  in 
honor  of  Colonel  Thomas  Leiper  Kane,  who  had  befriended  the 
Mormons  in  many  ways.  Col.  Kane  was  born  at  Philadelphia,  Jan- 
uary 27,  1822;  was  son  of  John  Kintzing  and  Jane  Duval  (Leiper) 
Kane.  His  father  was  a  prominent  lawyer  of  Philadelphia  and  Wash- 
ington and  an  adviser  of  several  Presidents  of  the  United  States,  in- 
cluding Andrew  Jackson.  Another  son,  Elisha  Kent  Kane,  became 
quite  well  known  on  account  of  his  explorations  in  the  Arctic.  Colonel 
Kane  visited  the  Mormon  settlement  at  Commerce  (Nauvoo),  Illinois, 
in  1847,  and  was  with  the  Saints  at  Council  Bluffs  in  1846  when  the 
brigade  was  recruited  for  the  Mexican  war.  He  went  to  Salt  Lake  in 
1858,  with  letters  from  President  Buchanan,  and  assisted  in  settling 
the  "Mormon  War".  In  April,  1861,  he  raised  a  regiment  of  hunters 
and  lumbermen  which  became  known  as  the  ' '  Bucktails ' ' ;  was  several 
times  wounded  during  the  war  of  the  rebellion,  on  account  of  which 
he  resigned  in  1863.  He  founded  the  town  of  Kane,  in  northwestern 
Pennsylvania;  was  author  of  "The  Mormons"  (1850);  "Alaska" 
(1868);  Coahuila  (1877).  He  died  at  Philadelphia  December  26, 
1883.     (See  The  Mormons.) 

The  population  of  Kanesville  was  increased  by  more  than  one  hun- 
dred per  cent,  by  the  influx  of  Saints  from  Winter  Quarters,  aban- 
doned in  the  spring  of  1848,  and  the  place  gained  a  number  of  business 
houses,  some  of  which  became  quite  prominent  in  after  years.  The 
population  is  said  to  have  approximated  seven  thousand  in  1849.  In 
1852  Apostle  Orson  Hyde,  who  had  been  in  charge  of  Latter  Day  Saint 
affairs  since  the  abandonment  of  Winter  Quarters,  departed  from 
Kanesville,  and  with  him  went  every  Mormon  whom  he  could  induce 
to  follow,  and  the  population  became  greatly  decreased.  It  was 
probably  not  in  excess  of  two  thousand  or  twenty-five  hundred  in  the 
spring  of  1853. 

On  page  8  of  Field  and  Reed's  "History  of  Pottawattamie  County," 
referring  to  the  Mormon  occupancy  of  the  place,  it  is  said : — 

"At  this  time  everything  was  controlled  by  the  church.  Idle- 
ness and  dissipation  were  not  tolerated.  There  was  no  jail  nor 
need  for  one." 


18  EARLY  DAYS   AT  COUNCIL   BLUFFS 

This  accords  with  information  given  the  writer  by  persons  who  were 
there  at  the  time ;  but,  when  he  went  there,  in  1853,  a  marked  change 
had  occurred.  There  were  numerous  drinking  and  gambling  places, 
running  "wide  open",  the  most  pretentious  of  which  was  called  the 
' '  Ocean  "Wave ' '  on  the  site  now  occupied  by  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  at  the  junction  of  Broadway  and  First  street.  Nor  was 
gambling  confined  to  the  houses  devoted  to  the  purpose,  all  of  which 
were  named,  "Humboldt",  "Bloomer",  &c. ;  but,  during  emigration 
days,  when  passing  "pilgrims"  were  numerous,  the  professionals  oc- 
cupied the  sidewalks  where  they  dealt  many  kinds  of  "sure-thing" 
games— "thimble  rigging",  "chuck-a-luck",  "monte",  etc.,  using 
empty  packing  boxes  upturned  for  tables,  stacked  upon  which  might 
frequently  be  seen  hundreds  of  dollars  in  gold  coin  to  catch  the  eye  of 
passers  by. 

There  was  little  manufacturing  in  the  very  early  days ;  commercially 
none.  Of  course  there  were  artisans  of  various  kinds:  shoemakers, 
blacksmiths,  wagon  makers,  etc.,  but  theirs  was  chiefly  custom  work 
and  repairing. 

The  first  saw  and  grist  mill  was  built  by  the  Pottawattamie  Indian 
Chiefs  in  1841  from  their  own  funds,  the  government  having  failed 
for  more  than  three  years  to  keep  its  promise  to  them  in  this  respect. 
It  was  located  on  Mosquito  creek,  about  two-and-one-half  miles  north 
and  east  from  the  site  of  Billy  Caldwell's  village  and  the  old  block- 
house, and  was  known  as  the  "Pottawattamie  Mill"  while  operated 
by  or  for  the  Indians.  Afterward  it  was  called  "Wicks'  Mill",  and, 
finally,  "Parks'  Mill". 

In  1848  Madison  Dagger  built  a  grist  mill  at  the  foot  of  the  bluff,  in 
the  western  part  of  the  Mormon  settlement,  less  than  a  half  mile  north 
of  the  site  of  the  present  Federal  Building.  Its  power  was  derived 
from  Indian  creek,  the  water  being  led  by  a  race  from  the  original 
channel  at  Benton  street,  along  what  were  then  known  as  Green  and 
Race  streets,  to  the  mill  site.  Afterward  machinery  for  manufacturing 
lumber  was  added. 

The  field  notes  of  the  government  survey,  made  in  November,  1851, 
mention  a  saw  mill  on  section  11,  township  75,  range  44.  It  was 
probably  ])uilt  early  in  1851  by  cither  Cornelius  Voorhis  or  Stephen 
T.  Carey  or  by  them  jointly,  being  at  times  given  the  name  of  each — 
"Voorhis  Mill"  or  "Carey  Mill"— and  sometimes  as  " Carey-Voorhis 
Mill".  They  made  a  joint  purchase  from  the  governniCMt  of  the  land 
upon  which  it  stood.     Us  power  came  from  a  spring  that  issued  from 


EARLY  DAYS   AT   COUNCIL   BLUFFS  19 

the  hills  there,  and  near  by  were  quarries  of  limestone,  and  several 
kilns  for  calcining  the  product.  How  long  it  was  in  operation  no  dis- 
covered record  discloses.  It  was  in  ruins  when  first  seen  by  the  writer, 
in  1855.    It  stood  at  the  then  extreme  head  of  "Big  Lake". 

The  writer  has  been  informed  that  the  little  powder  house  which  in 
early  days  was  perched  upon  the  top  of  the  higli  bluff  on  the  south 
side  of  Pierce  street,  between  South  First  street  and  Park  Avenue, 
was  built  of  bricks  made  in  "Duck  Hollow"  in  1848.  His  memory 
recalls  the  fact,  however,  that  it  was  commonly  reported,  in  1853,  that 
the  bricks  for  its  construction  were  brought  by  boat  from  St.  Louis  or 
St.  Joseph.  There  was  no  other  brick  building  in  the  town  in  the 
spring  of  1853. 

The  first  brickyard  of  commercial  importance  was  established  early 
in  1853  and  was  located  not  far  from  Dagger's  mill.  From  bricks 
made  there  was  constructed  the  first  brick  building  (excepting  the 
powder  house)  erected  within  the  limits  of  the  city.  It  was  a  one-story, 
two-room  structure;  owned  by  W.  C.  James  and  built  with  his  own 
hands  except  as  to  carpentery.  Its  first  occupant  was  the  United 
States  Land  Office,  in  the  late  summer  or  fall  of  1853.  My  father 
was  then  Register  and  Dr.  Enos  Lowe  was  receiver.  Each  office  oc- 
cupied a  room.  Subsequently  the  ownership  passed  to  Gardner 
("Gid")  Robinson,  by  whom  it  was  enlarged  and  for  many  years 
occupied  as  a  residence.  It  is  said  that  the  Federal  Building  now 
covers  the  site. 

No  steam  ferry  existed  at  Council  Bluffs  until  1854,  when  the  Iowa 
and  Nebraska  Ferry  Company  was  organized  and  placed  in  service 
a  small  boat  named  the  ' '  Nebraska. ' '  The  president  of  the  company 
was  Samuel  S.  Bayliss,  and  when  a  larger  boat  was  required  a  few 
years  later,  it  was  named  for  his  youngest  daughter,  "Lizzie  Bayliss". 

Prior  to  the  establishment  of  this  ferry  line  regular  steamboats 
plying  the  Missouri  river,  especially  those  built  for  the  fur  trade  on 
the  Upper  Missouri,  visited  the  place  at  the  season  of  emigration  and 
carried  emigrants,  all  called  "pilgrims"  in  those  days,  across  the 
stream.  Such  fact  is  mentioned  by  Captain  Joseph  La  Barge  in  the 
work  relating  to  his  life  and  adventures  elsewliere  quoted  and  cited  in 
this  work.  (See  History  of  Early  Navigation  on  the  Missouri  River, 
Life  and  Adventures  of  Joseph  La  Barge.) 

Subsequent  to  the  abandonment  of  the  De  Smet  mission  (1841)  and 
until  the  arrival  of  the  Mormons  (1846),  no  church  organization  of 
any  kind  was  represented  among  the  Pottawattamies  of  the  region. 


20  EARLY  DAYS  AT   COUNCIL   BLUFFS 

The  Indians  were  without  school  teachers  or  religious  instructors.  In 
1851  a  small  organization  of  Congregationalists  and  Methodists  was 
formed  under  the  leadership  of  Revs.  G.  G.  Rice  and  Wm.  Simpson, 
which  occupied  rented  quarters  for  use  as  a  chapel.  The  first  church 
edifice  erected  by  "gentiles"  was  due  to  the  efforts  of  Elder  Moses  F. 
Shinn,  who  persistently  solicited  in  the  highways  and  by  ways  until 
sufficient  funds  were  raised  to  erect  the  small  frame  structure  known 
as  the  Methodist  Church  which  for  many  years  stood  on  Pierce  street, 
between  Park  Avenue  and  First  street,  where  it  was  built  in  1854. 

Under  act  of  Congress  of  August  22,  1852  (10  Stat.,  26),  the  United 
States  established  at  Kanesville,  September  2,  1852,  a  land  office,  for 
which  Joseph  H.  D.  Street  and  Dr.  Samuel  M.  Ballard  were  commis- 
sioned Register  and  Receiver,  respectively.  Delay  in  preparation  of 
necessary  books  deferred  the  beginning  of  land  sales,  however,  until 
March  12,  1853.  The  office  name  was  changed  to  Council  Bluffs  in 
1855.  The  office  was  discontinued  May  13, 1873.  Subsequent  Registers 
were  Lysander  W.  Babbitt,  James  Pollard,  Lewis  S.  Hills  (demo- 
cratic) ;  Frank  Street,  Sylvanus  Dodge,  N.  Baldwin  (republicans)  ; 
the  Receivers  were  Enos  Lowe,  A.  H.  Palmer  (democrats),  and  Dexter 
C.  Bloomer  (republican),  the  latter  serving  from  April  2,  1861,  to  dis- 
continuance of  the  office — twelve  years. 

An  act  of  the  State  legislature  (approved  January  19,  1853,  to 
become  effective  after  publication)  authorizing  the  change  of  name 
from  Kanesville  to  Council  Bluffs,  became  operative  February  9,  1853. 
(See  Sess.  Laws,  4th  Gen.  Ass.,  Chap.  43,  page  72.) 

By  legislative  enactment  of  January  24,  1853  (Sess.  Laws,  4th 
Gen.  Ass.,  page  108),  entitled  "Incorporation  of  Council  Bluffs  City", 
incorporation  under  the  name  Council  Bluffs  was  authorized.  Many 
letters  of  business  men  immediately  following  incorporation  were 
dated  and  bore  the  printed  heading  "Council  Bluffs  City".  This  act 
became  operative  immediately  upon  its  passage;  so,  the  city  was  in- 
corporated before  legal  change  of  name  occurred. 

Although  not  strictly  within  the  purpose  of  this  work  to  make 
special  mention  of  individual  citizens  of  Council  Bluffs,  except  as 
merely  incidental  to  some  other  matter,  it  is  deemed  proper  to  state 
that,  in  1853,  Grenville  M.  Dodge  became  one  of  her  citizens,  afterward 
becoming  a  prominent  figure  in  the  history  of  the  United  States, 
earning  the  military  title  of  Major  General  in  the  War  of  the  Re- 
bellion and  serving  with  great  distinction  as  Chief  Engineer  in  the 
construction  of  the  Central  Branch  of  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad. 


EARLY  DAYS   AT  COUNCIL   BLUFFS  21 

In  a  biographical  sketch  published  in  connection  with  his  obituary 
it  was  stated  that  he  "discovered  the  South  Pass"  through  the  Rocky 
Mountains;  but  history  accords  that  honor  to  Etienne  Prevost,  about 
the  year  1832.  The  pass  was  well  known  to  and  used  by  the  fur 
companies  operating  in  that  region  at  an  early  day,  and  it  was  through 
information  and  sketch  maps  obtained  from  them  that  Brigham  Young, 
with  his  exploring  party,  was  aided  in  finding  his  way  by  that  route 
to  Great  Salt  Lake  in  1847, 

By  act  of  Congress,  approved  April  6,  1854  (10  Stat,  273),  it  was 
provided — 

' '  That  the  judge  of  the  county  court,  as  such,  for  the  county 
of  Pottawattamie,  in  the  State  of  Iowa,  be,  and  he  is  hereby, 
authorized  to  enter  at  the  proper  land  office,  by  paying  there- 
for, at  the  rate  of  one  dollar  and  twenty-five  cents  the  acre, 
the  west  half  of  the  southwest  quarter  of  section  thirty,  the 
west  half  of  the  northwest  quarter  of  section  thirty-one,  in 
township  number  seventy -five,  north  of  range  forty-three  M^est; 
the  southeast  quarter  and  the  east  half  of  the  southwest  quarter 
of  section  twenty-five,  and  the  northeast  quarter  and  the  east 
half  of  the  northwest  quarter  of  section  thirty-six,  in  township 
seventy-five,  north  of  range  forty-four  west,  in  said  State  of 
Iowa,  in  trust  for  the  several  use  and  benefit  of  the  occupants 
thereof,  according  to  their  respective  interests;     .     .     .     ," 

Under  which  authority  Frank  Street,  then  county  judge,  made  what 
is  known  as  the  townsite  entry  of  "Kanesville"  or  "Council  Bluffs", 
May  10,  1854. 

Prior  to  this,  however,  on  June  3,  1853,  Cornelius  Voorhis,  who  had 
been  elected  Mayor  of  the  recently  incorporated  city,  applied  to 

".  .  .  purchase  in  trust  for  the  benefit  of  the  occupants  of 
said  city,  the  NWi^SWi/4  of  section  No.  30,  in  Township  No. 
75,  north  of  Range  No.  43  west,  and  the  SEi^  and  the  SE% 
SWi/4  of  section  No.  25,  and  the  NEl^NWl^  and  the  North- 
west quarter  of  the  Northeast  quarter  of  section  No.  36,  all  in 
Township  No.  Seventy-five  North  of  No.  44  West,  in  the  district 
of  lands  subject  to  sale  at  Kanesville,  Iowa;  .  .  .  which 
lots  of  land  above  described  contain  Three  Hundred  and  Four- 
teen Acres  and  Fifty  Hundredths. ' ' 

This  application  was  rejected  on  the  ground,  chiefly,  that  no  law 
existed  authorizing  entry  in  that  manner;  but  also  because  protest 
against  allowance  thereof  had  been  made  by  the  Bishop  of  the  Diocese 
of  Dubuque,  who  claimed  for  the  Catholic  Church  ownership  to  twenty 


22  EARLY  DAYS   AT   COUNCIL   BLUFFS 

acres  in  the  W3^SWi4  of  said  section  30,  on  which  stood  the  old 
blockhouse  formerly  occupied  by  the  De  Smet  mission;  the  claim  of 
the  church  being  based  upon  the  language  of  Article  IX,  of  the  Potta- 
wattamie treaty  of  1846.  This  building  stood  upon  the  SWI/4SW14  of 
section  30,  and  it  is  presumed  that  said  tract  was  omitted  from  the 
Voorhis  application  for  the  purpose  of  avoiding  controversy. 

In  connection  with  the  church  protest  proceedings  were  had  before 
the  General  Land  Office  and  the  Bureau  of  Indian  Affairs,  which  were 
pending  at  the  time  Judge  Street's  entry  was  made,  serving  to  suspend 
action  thereon  and  preventing  issue  of  patent  for  the  townsite  until 
April  20,  1883,  almost  precisely  twenty-nine  years  from  date  of  entry. 
(See  Old  Blockhouse.) 

A  survey  of  the  townsite,  as  entered  by  Judge  Street,  was  made  by 
Thomas  Tostevin,  in  1854,  delimitating  the  boundaries  of  the  holdings 
of  the  several  occupants  of  the  land,  which  served  as  the  basis  for  all 
deeds  of  conveyance  executed  by  the  county  judge  thereafter,  and 
upon  which  now  rest  all  land  titles  within  that  portion  of  the  present 

city. 

Prior  to  1857  newspapers,  or  publications  having  general  subscrip- 
tion circulation,  were  established  as  follows : 

Frontier  Guardian,  by  Orson  Hyde,  1849; 
Weekly  Western  Bugle,  by  Almon  W.  Babbitt,  1850 ; 
Council  Bluffs  Chronotype,  by  W.  W.  Maynard,  1854 ; 
Democratic  Clarion,  by  A.  P.  Bentley,  1855. 

The  Guardian  was  absorbed  by  the  Bugle ;  the  Chronotype  and  Clarion 
died  natural  deaths;  the  Bugle  was  discontinued  in  1870,  being  suc- 
ceeded by  the  Council  Bluffs  Times,  which  died  a  lingering  death  a 
year  or  so  afterward. 

The  Weekly  Nonpareil  was  established  in  1857  by  Maynard  and 
Long;  developed  a  daily  edition  during  the  civil  war,  and  is  still 
"doing  business  at  the  old  stand". 

The  first  dramatic  performance  at  Council  Bluffs  was  by  amateurs, 
"The  Forrest  Dramatic  Association",  in  1856.  Babbitt's  Hall,  in 
the  old  Phof-nix  Block,  was  fitted  with  stage  and  George  Simons 
painted  the  scenery.  The  opening  bill  was  "The  Forest  Rose"  and 
"Paddy  Miles'  Boy".  Many  of  the  leading  citizens  participated  in 
the  performances  of  the  association,  which  contiinicd  for  two  or  three 
years  when  the  field  was  abandoned  to  professionals  represented  by 
traveling  combinations. 


EARLY  DAYS  AT  COUNCIL   BLUFFS 


23 


SKETCH  MAP  OF  THE  POTTAWATTAMIE  COUNTRY 


24  EARLY  DAYS   AT   COUNCIL   BLUFFS 


SKETCH  MAP  OF  POTTAWATTAMIE  COUNTRY. 

The  Sketch  Map  from  which  this  diagram  is  taken — slightly  larger 
than  this  copy — was  made  at  or  near  Council  Bluffs  in  1837  by  Dr. 
Edwin  James,  the  first  Sub-Agent  in  charge  of  the  Pottawattamie 
Indians  in  Iowa,  to  accompany  the  first  official  report  (August  11, 
1837,)  submitted  by  him  to  General  William  Clark,  Superintendent 
of  Indian  Affairs  at  St.  Louis,  and  was  by  the  latter  forwarded  to  the 
Secretary  of  War,  then  in  charge  of  Indian  Affairs,  with  a  letter  dated 
September  20,  1837. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  at  the  time  the  sketch  map  was  made 
no  survey  of  any  character  had  been  made  of  the  country  to  which 
the  map  relates;  that  Dr.  James  made  the  drawing  entirely  from  his 
own  observation  and  from  information  derived  from  trappers  and 
others  who  had  partially  explored  the  region.  Taking  into  considera- 
tion these  facts  the  map  is  wonderfully  accurate. 

The  original  of  this  map  is  in  the  office  of  the  Commissioner  of 
Indian  Affairs,  Washington,  D.  C.  (Pottawattamie  File  "C").  Notice 
the  name  "Welch's  Creek"  applied  to  what  is  now  called  Pigeon.  It 
was  named  "Indian  Knob  Creek"  by  Lewis  and  Clark,  and  is  shown 
on  Nicollet's  map  of  1843  as  "Gopher  Creek." 


THE  POTTAWATTAMIE  INDIANS. 

By  treaty  executed  July  15,  1830  (7  Stat.,  328-332),  territory  on 
the  Missouri  river,  now  embraced  in  southwestern  Iowa  and  the  north- 
west corner  of  Missouri,  was  ceded  to  the  United  States  by  the  tribes 
or  nations  of  Indians  known  as  Sacs,  Sioux,  lowas,  Otoes,  Missourias, 
Foxes;  they  reserved  hunting  privileges  therein  until  such  time  as 
the  government  should  locate  upon  the  lands  other  Indians,  whose 
removal  from  east  of  the  Mississippi  river  was  contemplated,  or  until 
other  appropriation  thereof  should  be  made. 

That  portion  of  the  ceded  territory  now  in  the  State  of  Missouri 
was  triangular  in  form,  or  wedge  shaped,  and  situated  between  the 
Little  Platte  and  Missouri  rivers,  being  about  fifty  miles  wide  at  the 
northern  end  and  running  to  a  point  at  the  junction  of  the  streams, 
opposite  the  site  of  the  present  Kansas  City. 

By  treaties  executed  September  26  and  27,  1833  (7  Stat.,  442  to 
448),  several  bands  of  Chippewas,  Ottawas  and  Pottawattamies  ceded 
to  the  United  States  their  possessory  right  to  lands  in  the  States  of 
Illinois  and  Indiana,  consenting  to  removal  to  the  west  of  the  Missis- 
sippi river,  and  a  portion  of  the  territory  acquired  by  the  United 
States  under  the  treaty  of  1830,  above  mentioned,  was  assigned  to 
them,  being  specifically  described  by  metes  and  bounds  in  the  later 
treaty,  when  finally  ratified,  as  follows : 

* '  Beginning  at  the  mouth  of  Boyer  's  river ;  thence  down  the 
Missouri  river  to  a  point  thereon  from  which  a  due  E  line 
would  strtke  the  NW  corner  of  the  State  of  Missouri ;  thence 
along  said  E  line  to  the  NW  corner  of  said  State ;  thence  along 
the  northern  boundary  of  Missouri  till  it  strikes  the  line  of 
the  lands  of  the  Sac  and  Fox  Indians;  thence  northwardly 
along  said  line  to  a  point  from  which  a  W  line  would  strike 
the  sources  of  the  little  Sioux  river-  thence  along  said  W  line 
till  it  strikes  the  sources  of  said  river;  thence  down  said  river 
to  its  mouth ;  thence  down  the  Missouri  river  to  the  beginning, 
provided  that  the  said  boundary  shall  contain  5,000,000  acres ; 
but  should  it  contain  more,  then  the  said  boundaries  are  to  be 
correspondingly  reduced." 

The  northern  boundary  of  this  territory  was  never  delimitated ;  but 
the  site  of  the  present  city  of  Council  Bluffs  was  embraced  therein; 


26  EARLY  DAYS   AT   COUNCIL   BLUFFS 

the  wedge-shaped  tract  in  Missouri  was  not.  It  may  here  be  said 
that,  at  the  dates  of  the  treaty  last  mentioned,  the  north  line  of  the 
State  of  Missouri  appeared  upon  official  maps  several  miles  north  of 
the  now  existing  Missouri-Iowa  boundary,  and  the  northwest  corner 
of  Missouri,  referred  to  in  the  description  of  lands  above  given,  was 
fifty  or  sixty  miles  east  of  the  point  at  which  it  was  finally  established 
— that  is,  a  few  miles  east  of  Bedford,  the  county  seat  of  Taylor 
County,  Iowa. 

The  removal  of  the  Pottawattamie  Indians  from  Illinois,  under 
the  treaty  of  1833,  began  in  the  fall  of  1835,  as  hereinafter  shown  by 
official  records.  The  removal  was  under  the  supervision  of  the  War 
Department  of  which  the  Indian  Bureau  was  then  a  part,  and,  for 
reasons  not  necessary  to  state  here,  the  officers  and  contractors  having 
charge  thereof  carried  the  greater  number  of  their  charges  to  the 
triangular  territory  above  mentioned,  although  this  land  was  not 
included  in  the  1833  treaty.  The  Indians  were  located  near  and 
opposite  Fort  Leavenworth  and  it  was  with  great  difficulty  that  they 
were  afterward  induced  to  leave  such  location  and  take  up  residence 
upon  the  Iowa  lands. 

The  lands  embraced  in  the  triangle  were  unconditionally  ceded  to 
the  United  States  by  the  Indians  party  to  the  treaty  of  1830  by  treaties 
of  Sept.  10,  17,  27 ;  Oct.  15,  and  Nov.  30,  1836  (see  7  Stat.,  510,  511, 
516,  524,  525,  527) ,  and  became  a  part  of  the  State  of  Missouri.  It  was 
known  as  the  "Platte  Purchase".  Then  the  trespassing  Indian  emi- 
grants were  forced  to  remove  to  the  country  assigned  them  in  Iowa. 

There  is  some  obscurity  as  to  the  precise  date  when  the  first  of  the 
Indians  arrived  in  the  vicinity  of  the  site  of  the  present  city  of 
Council  Bluffs.  There  is  some  evidence,  not  fully  convincing,  in- 
dicating that  one  party  reached  that  locality  in  1835  or  1836,  but  no 
official  record  showing  such  fact  has  been  found.  Stutely  E.  Wicks, 
a  white  member  of  the  tribe  through  marriage  with  an  Indian  woman, 
executed  an  affidavit  at  Council  Bluffs,  April  5,  1854,  in  which  appears 
the  following  allegation,  viz. : — 

"That  he  resided  in  the  year  1836  with  the  Pottawattamie 
Indians  in  the  Territory  of  Iowa  immediately  adjoining  and 
contiguous  to  the  Missouri  River." 

But  other  allegations  made  in  his  deposition  are  so  inconsistent  with 
facts  well  established  by  conclusive  evidence  as  to  discredit  this,  it 


THE   POTTAWATTAMIE    INDIANS  27 

being  apparent  that  he  was  mistaken  in  respect  to  dates  of  occurrences. 
(See ''Old  Blockhouse".) 

The  earliest  officially  authenticated  arrival  of  the  Pottawattamies 
at  or  near  the  site  of  the  present  city  of  Council  Bluffs,  occurred  July 
28,  1837,  when  Brigadier  General  H.  Atkinson,  commanding  the  First 
Department  of  the  Western  Division  of  the  Army,  accompanied  by 
Dr.  Edwin  James,  recently  appointed  Indian  Sub-agent  and  placed 
in  charge  of  the  Pottawattamies,  with  about  one  hundred  of  the  women 
and  children  and  other  members  of  the  nation  unable  to  march,  on 
board  the  steamer  "Kansas",  arrived  at  a  point  on  the  Missouri  river 
"fifteen  or  eighteen  miles  above  the  mouth  of  the  great  Platte  river" 
and  landed  "on  the  left  bank  of  the  Missouri  river",  where  he 
formally  committed  the  Indians  to  the  care  of  the  sub-agent  by  letter 
of  that  date  wherein  he  said: 

"Hd.  Qrs.  1st  Dept.  West.  Div.  of  the  U.  S.  Army, 
Steamboat  Kansas,  near  Belleview,  July  28,  1837. 
Sir:— 

Having  been  ordered  by  the  General  in  Chief  of  the  Army, 
bearing  date  20th  June,  and  given  in  conformity  with  instruc- 
tions from  the  Secretary  of  War  of  the  19th  of  June,  to  remove 
the  Pottawattamies  to  their  lands  agreeably  to  the  treaty  made 
on  the  26th  September,  1833,  and  ratified  21st  Februar^^,  1835, 
and  having  landed  a  portion  of  them  at  this  point,  and  the 
residue  being  on  their  march  and  will  shortly  arrive,  I  consider 
the  object  of  the  Government  accomplished.  .  .  , 
With  respect.  Sir,  Your  Ob't  Serv't 

H.  Atkinson,  Brig.  Gen'l. 
Dr.  Edwin  James, 

Sub-Agent  for  Pottawattamies." 

Pursuant  to  his  duty  General  Atkinson  made  report  to  the  Governor 
of  Missouri,  as  follows: 

"Hd.  Qrs.  1st  Dept.  West.  Div.  of  the  Army, 
Steamboat  Kansas,  Roche's  Point,  August  2,  1837. 
To  His  Excellency, 

G.  W.  Boggs,  Governor  of  the  State  of  Missouri. 
Sir:— 

I  have  the  honor  to  inform  you  that,  in  obedience  to  orders 
from  the  Secretary  of  War,  I  have  removed  the  Pottawattamie 
Indians  from  within  the  limits  of  this  State  to  their  own  lands, 
and  they  have  selected  a  position  and  located  themselves  on  the 
left  bank  of  this  river  fifteen  or  eighteen  miles  above  the  great 
Platte  river.     .     .     . 


28  EARLY  DAYS   AT  COUNCIL   BLUFFS 

With  highest  Consideration,  Sir,  I  have  the  Honor  to  be 
Your  Most  Ob't  Serv't, 

H.  Atkinson,  Brig.  Gen'l  U.  S.  Army." 

General  Atkinson  submitted  simultaneous,  but  separate,  reports,  in 
substantially  the  same  language,  to  Major  General  Macomb,  General 
in  Chief  of  the  Army,  and  to  General  William  Clark,  Superintendent 
of  Indian  Affairs.  The  following  is  from  the  letter  to  General  Clark, 
to-wit : 

"Hd.  Qrs.  1st  Dept.  West.  Div.  of  the  U.  S.  Army, 

Jefferson  Barracks,  August  5,  1837. 
Sir.— 

I  returned  yesterday  from  among  the  Pottawattamies  and 
lowas  and  Sacks  of  the  Missouri  River,  whither  I  had  been 
ordered  by  the  Secretary  of  War  to  remove  the  Pottawattamies 
to  their  own  lands  agreeably  to  treaty.  Part  of  the  band,  accom- 
panied by  their  agent,  Dr.  James,  was  landed  at  a  point  on 
the  left  bank  of  the  Missouri  river  fifteen  or  eighteen  miles 
above  the  mouth  of  the  great  Platte,  whither  the  main  body 
were  under  march  and  would  arrive  in  four  or  five  days  after. 
This  position  or  one  In  the  immediate  neighborhood  is  selected 
by  the  Indians  as  their  permanent  home.     .     .     . 

With  Great  Respect,  Sir,  I  have  the  Honor 

to  be  Your  Ob't  Serv't, 
H.  Atkinson,  Brig.  G^n'l  U.  S.  Army, 
General  William  Clark, 

Superintendent  of  Indian  Affairs,  St.  Louis." 

The  foregoing  extracts  are  taken  from  unpublished  copies  of  letters 
and  reports  in  the  files  of  the  Indian  Office,  Washington,  D.  C,  re- 
lating to  the  emigration  of  the  Pottawattamie  Indians  under  the  treaty 
of  1833.  The  removal  of  those  who  finally  located  in  Southwestern 
Iowa,  never  exceeding  3000,  began  in  1835  and  terminated  in  1838. 
With  his  official  report,  dated  November  28,  1840,  the  Commissioner 
of  Indian  Affairs  submitted  a  statement  from  which  has  been  taken  the 
following: 

Captain  Russell  removed,  in  the  fall  of  1835.  a  large 
party  of  the  Chicago  Indians,  and,  in  1836,  Mr.  Ker- 
cheval  removed  another  party  ;  but  it  would  appear,  from 
a  letter  from  Dr.  James,  sub-agent,  &c.,  that  both  to- 
gether did  not  exceed 1,455 

Prior  to  November,  1837,  the  same  band  had  removed, 
themselves 842 


THE   POTTAWATTAMIE    INDIANS  29 

On  the  26th  of  November,  1837,  Colonel  Sands  de- 
livered          287 

And,  in  the  fall  of  1838,  Mr.  Berry  delivered 150 

Whole  number  of  Ottawas,  Chippewas  and  Potta- 
wattamies  removed  prior  to  1840    (all  in  the   Council 

Bluffs  sub-agency)  2,734 

(H.  Doc,  26th  Cong.,  2d  Sess.,  Volume  1,  Page  253.) 

August  4,  1837,  Captain  D.  B.  Moore,  in  command  of  Company  C 
of  the  First  Regiment  of  Dragoons,  having  marched  from  Fort  Leav- 
enworth, arrived  at  the  Council  Bluffs  Sub-agency  for  the  purpose  of 
affording  protection  to  the  emigrating  Pottawattamies  from  hostile 
treatment  by  their  belligerent  neighbors  to  the  northward.  Pursuant 
to  his  orders  he  caused  to  be  erected  in  that  vicinity  a  blockhouse,  and, 
with  his  command  returned  to  Fort  Leavenworth  on  November  1, 
1837,  his  report  to  Colonel  Kearny  relative  to  the  carrying  out  of 
orders  given  in  connection  with  the  expedition  having  been  dated  at 
Fort  Leavenworth  on  the  11th  of  that  month.  (See  "Old  Block- 
house.") 

This  blockhouse  formed  the  nucleus  of  Chief  Billy  Caldwell 's  village. 
The  precise  dates  when  it  was  begun  and  finished  have  not  been  found ; 
nor  is  it  known  with  certainty  when  Caldwell  and  his  band  took  up 
residence  there ;  but  it  may  be  presumed  that  the  two  events  were 
coincident. 

The  place  of  first  encampment  of  the  Pottawattamies  was  described 
in  the  first  official  report  submitted  by  Dr.  James,  sub-agent,  and  the 
report  was  accompanied  by  a  sketch  map  of  the  new  Pottawattamie 
country,  a  diagram  prepared  from  it  is  printed  herein.  From  Dr. 
James'  report  is  taken  the  following: 

"Sub-Agency  of  Council  Bluffs, 

(Bellevue)  Aug.  11th,  1837. 

Gen.  Wm.  Clark. 

Sir:  The  second  detachment  of  emigrating  Pottawattomies, 
about  seventy-five  in  number,  arrived  in  their  own  country  pr. 
steamboat  Howard  on  the  8th  inst.  and  encamped  with  those 
who  came  by  the  Kansas,  about  two  miles  above  this  place  in  a 
grove  adjoining  a  fine  dry  prairie.  This  position  combines  more 
advantages  than  we  can  find  in  any  other;  here  we  expect  to 
establish  the  issue  house,  and  to  be  joined  before  many  days 
by  the  main  body  of  the  nation,  who  have  now  been  twenty- 


30  EARLY  DAYS   AT  COUNCIL   BLUFFS 

three   days   on   the   march   by   land   from   the   Black   Snake 
ffills.     . '  .     . 

With  great  respect  your  obedient  servant, 

Edwin  James,  Sub- Agent  for  Council  Bluffs." 
(S.  Doc.  25th  Cong.,  2d  Sess.,  Vol.  1,  page  549.) 

From  the  next  letter  or  report  submitted  by  Dr.  James,  which  does 
not  appear  to  have  been  published,  though  on  file  in  the  Indian  Office, 
the  following  extract  is  made,  to-wit: 

"Sub-Agency  of  Council  Bluifs,  Aug.  30th,  1837. 
Gen.  Wm.   Clark. 

Sir:  All  of  the  Pottawattomies  lately  resident  in  the  Platte 
Purchase  have  arrived  in  their  own  country,  except  two  or  three 
who  died  by  the  way. 

They  express  themselves  well  satisfied  with  the  lands  and 
profess  a  strong  desire  to  cultivate  largely ;  and  to  have  schools 
established  among  them  without  loss  of  time.     .     .     . " 

It  is  not  the  purpose  of  this  work  to  give  a  complete  history  in 
detail  of  the  Pottawattamie  Indians  in  southwestern  Iowa,  but  to 
note  merely  such  principal  matters  of  interest  among  them  as  pertain 
to  the  immediate  vicinity  of  Council  Bluffs,  although  the  writer  feels 
constrained  to  make  correction  of  error  relating  to  the  general  history 
of  these  Indians  where  the  same  has  come  to  his  notice  in  the  course 
of  research  for  this  publication.  It  clearly  appears,  from  the  report 
of  Dr.  James,  and  other  authorities  herein  cited,  that  all  of  the  Potta- 
wattamies  who  had  been  upon  the  Platte  Purchase,  and  about  280  from 
east  of  the  Mississippi,  not  reported  by  him,  reached  the  neighborhood 
of  the  site  of  the  present  city  of  Council  Bluffs  in  1837,  and  about  150, 
from  the  east,  joined  them  in  1838.  In  his  annual  report  for  1838, 
the  Commissioner  of  Indian  Affairs  said : 

"There  have  emigrated  within  the  year  151  Chippewa, 
Ottawa  and  Pottawattamies. "  (Sen.  Doc,  25th  Cong.,  3d  Sess., 
Vol.  1,  page  443.) 

The  various  bands  soon  spread  over  the  adjacent  country  and  estab- 
lished villages  at  many  points.  The  village  of  Billy  Caldwell's  band 
was  situated  upon  the  precise  spot  where  the  original  town  of  Council 
Bluffs  b(!camo  located  in  1846,  and  probably  not  over  500  Indians  were 
at  any  one  time  located  in  that  immediate  vicinity. 

Mr.  Jacob  Van  der  Zee,  in  a  paper  published  in  the  July,  1913, 


THE    POTTAWATTAMIE    INDIANS  31 

number  of  the  Iowa  Journal  of  History  and  Politics,  reprinted  as  a 
booklet  under  the  title  ' '  Episodes  in  the  Early  History  of  the  Western 
Iowa  Country",  has  stated,  upon  the  authority  of  a  number  of  writers 
and  publications  duly  accredited,  that : 

"Dr.  James  continued  to  reside  at  'the  Council  Bluffs  sub- 
agency'  until  his  resignation  in  1838,  and  after  that  the  Council 
Bluffs  agent  at  Bellevue  took  charge  for  a  while.  David  Hardin 
and  his  family  arrived  early  in  the  spring  of  1838  on  board 
the  steamer  'Antelope'  from  Fort  Leavenworth.  He  had  been 
appointed  farmer  to  the  Pottawattamies  in  September,  1836, 
at  a  salary  of  $600.  It  is  said  that  he  located  near  a  big  spring 
on  what  is  now  East  Broadway,  Council  Bluff's.  The  Potta- 
wattamies planted  very  little  com  or  anything  else,  'except 
here  and  there  one,  who  happened  to  have  a  hoe  or  a  plough'. 
One  band  consisting  of  about  one-third  of  the  nation,  headed 
by  Chief  Big  Foot,  did  not  enter  the  Iowa  country  until  the 
fall  of  1838  and  then  retired  eastward  to  set  up  a  village  on 
the  Nishnabotna  river  almost  fifty  miles  away.  All  the  other 
villages  were  from  two  to  fifteen  miles  distant  from  the  agency 
buildings. ' ' 

Mr.  Hardin's  name  was  Davis  (not  David).  He  was  appointed 
Assistant  Indian  Farmer  September  1,  1836,  with  salary  of  $600,  and 
assumed  duty  in  1837  at  the  Council  Bluffs  Sub-agency,  under  contract 
with  Dr.  James,  and  appears  upon  the  published  roll  of  Indian  Bureau 
employees  for  that  year  as  "David  Harolin";  on  the  1838  roll  the 

name  is  " Hardin".     It  appears  from  unpublished  records  in 

the  Indian  Office  that  his  legal  connection  with  the  service  terminated 
with  that  year,  but  he  was  recognized  by  the  Superintendent  of  Indian 
Affairs  as  entitled  to  pay  to  the  close  of  1839,  when  his  name  was 
dropped  from  the  official  roll.  He  continued  to  reside  upon  the  agency 
farm,  although  efforts  were  made  to  oust  him,  and  alleged  that  he 
had  not  been  formally  notified  of  his  removal;  so,  June  20,  1842,  a 
formal  letter  of  dismissal  was  delivered  to  him  in  person,  whereupon 
he  demanded  payment  to  that  date.  The  attainable  records  do  not 
disclose  the  final  disposition  of  his  claim. 

He  may  have  located  with  his  family  temporarily  at  the  spring  on 
East  Broadway;  but  the  agency  farm, — to  at  least  a  part  of  which 
one  of  his  sons  subsequently  acquired  title, — was  found  by  the  United 
States  Surveys  made  in  1851  and  1852,  to  embrace  the  Lot  4  (W^^ 
SWi/i)  Sec.  14,  and  E1/2SE14  Sec.  15,  T.  74  N.,  R.  44  W.,  5th  P.  M. 


32  EARLY  DAYS   AT  COUNCIL   BLUFFS 

(See  Kanesville  Cash  Entry  No.  160,  made  by  Richard  S.  Hardin, 
May  28,  1853,  General  Land  Office  file.)  This  land  lies  two  miles 
west  and  four  miles  south  of  the  site  of  Billy  Caldwell's  village,  and 
is  partly  within  the  "4-mile  circle  from  the  postoffice,"  as  that  circle 
is  laid  down  on  "Allen's  Suburban  Map  of  Council  Bluffs"  published 
in  1890. 

In  his  official  report  of  October  12,  1840,  Sub-agent  Stephen  Cooper 

said: 

' '  There  is  no  farmer  within  my  agency  and  the  Indians  state 
they  do  not  wish  for  one." 

(Sen.  Doc.,  26th  Cong.,  2d  Sess.,  Vol.  1,  page  322.) 

(Also  see  Sen.  Doc,  28th  Cong.,  1st  Sess.,  Vol.  1,  page  393.) 

May  31,  1838,  Father  Pierre-Jean  De  Smet,  S.  J.,  accompanied 
by  Father  Felix  Verreydt  and  lay  brother  Mazelli,  arrived  at  the 
Council  Bluffs  sub-agency  and  established  among  the  Pottawattamies 
a  mission  which  was  named  St.  Joseph  but  frequently  mentioned  by 
the  name  St.  Mary.  The  old  fort  given  them  by  Colonel  Kearney,  to 
which  they  built  an  addition,  together  with  some  small  cabins  given 
by  Chief  Caldwell  and  a  dwelling  erected  by  themselves  in  1839, 
served  as  church  or  chapel,  school  and  residence  for  the  missionaries. 
(See  "Old  Blockhouse".) 

Father  De  Smet's  early  letters  from  this  mission  are  said  to  have 
been  the  beginning  of  the  series  from  which  his  name  became  so  widely 
known.  They  contained  glowing  accounts  of  the  success  being  attained 
in  the  evangelization  and  education  of  the  Indians ;  but  he  was  called 
away  and  sent  to  other  fields  late  in  1839,  and  prosperity,  which  had 
already  begun  to  wane,  seems  to  have  forsaken  the  mission  entirely 
soon  after  his  departure,  and  it  was  closed  and  finally  abandoned  in 
July  or  August,  1841,  having  lived  but  a  little  more  than  three  years. 
No  other  mission  or  school  of  any  kind  appears  to  have  been  established 
at  the  place  during  the  subsequent  six  years  of  occupancy  by  the 
Pottawattamies. 

Ilon.  Dexter  C.  Bloomer,  of  Council  Bluffs,  published  more  matter 
relative  to  the  early  history  of  the  Council  Bluffs  region  than  any 
other  person.  He  was  a  most  estimable  and  conscientious  man ;  but, 
unfortunately,  although  a  lawyer  by  profession,  he  was  not  a  deep 
investigator.  Nearly  all  of  the  quasi  historical  matter  furnished  by 
him  was  based  upon  hearsay,  legend  and  tradition,  and  much  of  it 
proves  upon  investigation  to  have  been  erroneous.    Especially  is  this 


THE   POTTAWATTAMIE    INDIANS  33 

the  case  with  his  contributions  to  Annals  of  Iowa  relative  to  the 
coming  of  the  Pottawattamies  and  the  building  of  the  old  blockhouse. 
(See  Annals  of  Iowa,  Volumes  8-9,  pages  523,  527,  666;  also  Third 
Series,  Volume  2,  page  549.) 

Mr.  Bloomer  fixed  the  dates  of  the  coming  of  the  Indians  and  the 
erection  of  the  blockhouse  as  1838  and  1839  respectively;  whereas 
they  were  practically  synonymous  events  which  occurred  in  1837.  He 
said  that  the  blockhouse  was  the  "first  building  erected  in  Potta- 
wattamie county",  apparently  forgetting  or  ignoring  the  fact  that 
he  had  also  written  of  the  location  of  Hart 's  trading  house  within  that 
territory  "as  early  as  1824".  In  connection  with  the  arrival  of  the 
Indians  he  said:  "Davis  Hardin  was  their  agent  and  came  with 
them ' ' ;  also  that,  ' '  Mr.  Hardin  caused  a  mill  to  be  built  on  Mosquito 
creek  for  the  grinding  of  grain  raised  by  them  and  himself". 

There  is  no  record  connected  with  the  arrival  of  the  Pottawattamie 
Indians  in  the  vicinity  to  indicate  that  Mr.  Hardin  was  with  them. 
The  record  shows  that  Dr.  Edwin  James  came  with  the  party  that 
first  arrived,  having  been  appointed  as  a  sub-agent  and  assigned  to 
the  Pottawattamies  in  April,  1837,  and  that  the  emigrating  Indians 
were  delivered  to  him  by  General  Atkinson  on  the  date  of  arrival. 
The  farm  settled  upon  by  Mr.  Hardin — that  is  selected  by  him  for  the 
Indians,  whose  farmer  he  was — comprised  land  near  what  was  after- 
ward called  "Council  Point",  but  no  such  name  existed  at  the  date 
of  his  arrival.  The  official  records  (letters  on  file  in  the  Indian  Office) 
show  that  the  mill  referred  to  by  Mr.  Bloomer  was  built  at  the  expense 
of  the  Indians,  in  1841,  by  Samuel  N.  Holcomb,  under  contract  made 
in  1840  between  him  and  Chief  Billy  Caldwell,  at  which  time  Mr. 
Hardin  had  no  connection  with  the  Indian  service. 

For  several  years  after  the  Pottawattamies  left  the  vicinity  the  mill 
just  mentioned  was  operated  under  lease  by  Stutely  E.  Wicks,  and,  in 
time,  became  known  as  "Wicks'  Mill".  Tradition  accredited  Mr. 
Wicks  as  miller  for  the  Indians,  but  no  government  record  attests  the 
fact.  He  was  undoubtedly  connected  with  the  institution  while  under 
Indian  or  government  control,  but  does  not  appear  to  have  held  ap- 
pointment as  miller.  He  became  owner  of  the  property  by  purchase 
from  George  Scofield,  who  entered  and  acquired  title  from  the  govern- 
ment to  the  land  upon  which  it  stood.  (See  Cash  Entry  No.  184, 
Kanesville  series.  May  31,  1854,  in  General  Land  Office  files,  Wash- 
ington, D.  C.) 


34  EARLY  DAYS   AT  COUNCIL   BLUFFS 

The  fii'st  mention  of  this  mill  found  in  published  reports  of  the 
Indian  ser\dce  appears  under  date  of  October  2,  1841,  wherein  Sub- 
agent  Cooper  said : 

"There  is  neither  farmer  nor  school  teacher  employed  by 
the  Government  within  this  sub-agency. 

The  Chiefs  complain  that  their  treaty  stipulations  have  not 
been  complied  with,  and,  in  consequence  of  which,  they  have 
built  a  saw-and-grist  mill  at  their  own  expense  that  is  doing 
a  tolerable  good  business. 

Bill  Caldwell,  the  principal  business  chief  of  this  nation, 
and  who  drew  a  life  annuity  of  $1,000  per  annum,  died  on  the 
27th  ultimo." 

(Sen.  Doc,  27th  Cong.,  2d  Sess.,  Vol.  1,  page  357.) 

(Sen.  Doc,  28th  Cong.,  1st  Sess.,  Vol.  1,  page  393.) 

Some  of  the  errors  above  mentioned  have  been  repeated  and  per- 
petuated in  publications  of  later  date.  Among  those  that  have  come 
to  the  attention  of  the  writer  are : 

"History  of  Pottawattamie  County,  Iowa",  by  Homer  H. 
Field  and  Jaseph  R.  Reed; 

"History  of  Iowa",  by  Hon.  Benjamin  F.  Cue; 

"History  of  Western  Iowa",  published  by  the  Western  Pub- 
lishing Company,  Sioux  City; 

"History  of  Mills  County,  Iowa",  published  by  the  Iowa  His- 
torical Company,  Chicago; 

"History  of  Pottawattamie  County,  Iowa",  published  by  O.  L. 
Baskin  &  Co.,  Chicago; 

"Biographical  History  of  Pottawattamie  County,  Iowa",  1891, 
published  by  the  Lewis  Publishing  Company; 

"Episodes  in  the  Early  History  of  Western  Iowa",  by  Jacob 
Van  der  Zee,  reprinted  from  the  July,  1913,  number  of  the 
Iowa  Journal  of  History  and  Politics,  by  the  State  Historical 
Society  of  Iowa,  Iowa  City. 

A  quotation  from  the  work  last-above  mentioned  has  been  made 
hereinbefore  which  contains,  in  addition  to  other  things,  the  statement 
that  Bigfoot's  band  did  not  "enter  the  Iowa  country  until  the  fall 
of  1838"  and  then  "set  up  a  village  on  the  Nishnabotna  River" 
fpage  24).  On  page  25,  referring  to  the  fear  of  the  Pottawattamies 
soon  aftf'r  aiTival   that  tliey  would  be  attacked  by  the  Sioux,  it  is 

said : 

"To  quiet  tlicir  ;ilarm  and  apprehensions  Colonel  Stephen 
Watts  Kearny  hastened  from  Fort  Ijeavenwortli  in  command 
of  a  bo<ly  of  dragoons,  arriving  on  l)()ard  the  steamer  'Antelope'. 


THE   POTTAWATTAMIE    INDIANS  35 

They  at  once  erected  a  block-house  twenty-four  feet  square 
and  set  up  barracks  and  tents  on  the  ground  near  by. ' ' 

Both  of  the  statements  are  erroneous.  According  to  the  official 
records  Bigfoot's  band  arrived  in  the  Iowa  country  in  the  fall  of  1837. 
Indian  Agent  John  Dougherty,  then  in  charge  of  the  Pottawattamie 
sub-agency,  in  his  official  report  dated  Bellevue,  November  25,  1838, 
stated  that: 

'  *  Big  Foot 's  band  came  too  late  to  raise  corn  last  spring.  They 
came  in  last  fall  and  received  their  annuities  and  rations,  and 
returned  to  the  Des  Moines  River,  where  they  spent  the  winter 
with  some  of  the  Missouri  Sacs,  and  I  understand  it  is  their 
intention  to  return  to  that  place  as  soon  as  they  receive  their 
annuities  again."  (Sen.  Doc,  25th  Cong.,  3d  Sess.,  Vol.  1,  page 
321.) 

Official  documents  indicate  that  Colonel  Kearny  was  officially 
present  in  the  vicinity  of  Council  Bluffs'  site  spring  of  1838;  summer 
of  1839,  and  in  1840 ;  no  other  visits  mentioned.  On  the  latter  occasion 
he  was  in  command  of  troops  contemplating  punitive  measures  against 
the  Pawnees  and  Otoes.  The  other  visits  were  for  examination  of  sites 
for  a  fort,  on  the  west  (right)  side  of  the  river,  resulting  in  the  location 
of  the  old  fort  which  bore  his  name  at  the  site  of  Nebraska  City.  He 
left  Fort  Leavenworth  June  30,  1846,  for  participation  in  the  war 
with  Mexico.     (Sen.  Doc,  29th  Cong.,  2d  Sess.,  Vol.  1,  page  49.) 

Referring  to  the  location  of  the  several  bands  or  tribes  under  his 
jurisdiction.  Sub-agent  Cooper,  in  his  report  dated  October  12,  1840, 
said: 

"Many  of  them  have  large  fields,  well  fenced  in,  with  good 
log  cabins,  and  are  settled  in  villages  from  two  to  five,  ten  or 
fifteen  miles  from  the  Council  Bluffs  sub-agency — except  Big 
Foot's  band,  who  live  upon  the  waters  of  the  Nishnebottona, 
about  fifty  miles  east  of  this  agency,  which  band  constitutes 
about  one-third  of  the  nation."  (Sen.  Doc,  26th  Cong  2d 
Sess.,  Vol.  1,  page  321.) 

It  is  within  the  knowledge  of  the  writer,  founded  on  good  authority, 
that  Big  Foot's  village  was  on  Indian  creek,  a  tributary  of  the  Nish- 
nabotna  river,  a  short  distance  above  the  confluence  with  that  river 
which  place  subsequently  became  known,  and  still  appears  upon  maps, 
as  Iranistan.  That  is,  the  village  was  "on  the  waters  of  the  Nish- 
nebottona", but  not  actually  on  that  stream. 


36  EARLY  DAYS  AT  COUNCIL   BLUFFS 

The  report  last  quoted  showed,  also,  that  the  offices  of  the  sub- 
agency  were  still  situated  nearly  opposite  the  mouth  of  the  Platte 
river,  and  that  the  number  of  Indians  within  the  sub-agency  was  about 
two  thousand,  of  whom  550  were  warriors.  (See  Sen.  Doc,  26th  Cong., 
2d  Sess.,  Vol.  1,  page  322.) 

An  additional  report  was  submitted  by  Sub-agent  Cooper,  in  the 
fall  of  1840,  wherein  appears  the  following: 

' '  Schools,  there  are  none  here  under  the  authority  of  the  gov- 
ernment. There  are  two  Roman  Catholic  priests  residing  within 
my  agency,  of  good  moral  character,  who  set  a  good  example  to 
the  Indians  and  half  breeds.  They  have  a  chapel,  and  school, 
and  teacher,  and  have  several  young  Indians  in  the  school  who 
are  coming  on  pretty  well."  (Sen.  Doc,  26th  Cong.,  2d  Sess., 
Vol.  1,  page  397.) 

The  original  landing  of  the  Indians  in  1837  was  in  the  vicinity  of 
the  site  of  the  agency  farm  as  located  by  Mr.  Hardin ;  possibly  at  the 
lauding  shown  by  government  survey  about  a  mile  below  Hardin's 
house,  now  in  Lake  Manawa.  Soon  after  the  landing  headquarters  of 
the  sub-agency  were  established  at  a  point  nearly  opposite  the  mouth 
of  the  Platte  river.  Sometime  prior  to  1845  removal  to  Point  aux 
Poulos  was  effected.  July  24,  of  that  year,  Sub-agent  Elliott  re- 
ported that: 

''The  number  in  this  sub-agency  is  about  2000. 

We  have  no  schools  or  missions  among  the  Pottawattamies. 

The  half  breeds,  men  and  women,  among  the  Pottawattamies, 
all  wear  the  dress  of  the  whites,  and  adopt  our  mode  of  life 
so  far  as  their  knowledge  and  means  enable  them  to  do  so. 

The  office  of  this  sub-agency  is  located  at  Point  aux  Poulos, 
on  the  northeast  bank  of  the  Missouri  river,  about  twenty  miles 
below  the  mouth  of  Boycr's  river,  and  opposite  Bellevue,  as 
marked  on  the  map.  The  distance  to  the  Missouri  State  line  is 
about  thirty-five  miles.  High  Creek  postoffice,  in  Atchison 
(late  Holt)  County,  Missouri,  is  the  nearest  postoffice  to  this 
place. 

The  three  trading  houses  of  this  sub-agency  are  at  Point 
aux  Poulos."  (Sen.  Doc,  29th  Cong.,  1st  Sess.,  Vol.  1,  page 
470.) 

When  the  offices  of  the  sub-agency  were  removed  from  the  point 
opposite  th(!  mouth  of  the  Platte;  where  removed  to  at  the  time,  or 
when  established  at  Point  aux  Poulos,  are  questions  not  answerable 


THE   POTTAWATTAMIE    INDIANS  37 

from  any  of  the  discovered  official  records.  In  the  spring  of  1843, 
when  Captain  Burgwin's  cantonment  of  Fort  Croghan  was  inundated 
by  the  Missouri  river,  it  appears  that  the  sub-agency  establishment 
was  also  flooded,  and  it  is  not  improbable  that  the  offices  were  re- 
moved from  the  site  then  occupied  at  the  same  time  as  the  troops 
removed  to  the  highlands.  Captain  Burgwin  was  at  the  time  in 
charge,  temporarily,  of  the  sub-agency  affairs,  and  it  is  probable  that 
he  had  removed  the  offices  to  his  cantonment  for  convenience,  and 
that  they  were  removed  to  the  same  point  to  which  the  military  estab- 
lishment was  taken. 

Richard  S.  Elliott  was  appointed  sub-agent  of  the  Council  Bluffs 
agency  early  in  1843,  and  assumed  charge  on  June  1st  of  that  year. 
In  a  letter  of  that  date,  addressed  to  the  Superintendent  of  Indian 
Affairs  at  St.  Louis,  he  reported  his  arrival  and  acknowledged  receipt 
of  the  papers  and  effects  of  the  sub-agency  from  Captain  Burgwin 
as  of  that  date.  The  precise  point  from  which  he  wrote  does  not 
appear,  but  he  said: 

"The  mills  for  the  agency  for  lumber  and  grist  are  in  toler- 
able order;  and  a  blacksmith  shop  is  in  progress  of  erection 
at  the  mills,  the  tools  having  been  removed  from  the  river  on 
account  of  the  high  waters  of  a  few  weeks  since. 

' '  I  find  no  suitable  buildings  for  the  agency.  There  is  a  cabin 
some  distance  down  the  river  from  the  point  at  which  I  write 
this,  but  it  is  unfortunately  located  as  well  for  the  health  and 
comfort  of  the  Sub-Agent  as  for  the  business  of  the  Indians; 
and  it  should,  I  think,  be  sold  as  soon  as  possible.  It  might, 
I  have  no  doubt,  be  disposed  of  to  the  present  occupant,  Mr. 
Stephen  Cooper,  who  is  a  mere  tenant  by  sufferance,  but  would 
be  very  unwilling  to  leave  the  place  if  he  could  avoid  it.  If 
authorized  to  do  so  I  will  dispose  of  the  building.  Mr.  Cooper 
is  a  licensed  trader. 

"Under  the  circumstances  I  deem  it  my  duty,  as  well  to  the 
Indians  as  to  my  family,  to  request  an  allowance  of  at  least 
five  hundred  dollars  to  erect  a  suitable  agency  house,  and,  if 
I  receive  the  allowance,  I  will  locate  the  building  so  as  to 
accommadate  the  Indians  during  their  stay  in  the  country,  and 
to  bring  the  government  a  good  price  when  they  leave.  I  have 
no  house  now.     .     .     ." 

Soon  after  his  arrival  Mr.  Elliott  recommended  the  appointment 
as  interpreter  for  the  sub-agency  of  Claude  Laf ramboise,  to  succeed 
Louis  Ouilmot,  and,  in  a  letter  dated  July  31,  1843,  explained  to  the 


38  EARLY  DAYS   AT   COUNCIL   BLUFFS 

Superintendent  of  Indian  Affairs  his  reasons  for  the  recommendation 

as  follows: 

"  ....  My  reasons  for  nominating  Mr.  Lafraraboise 
were  these :  Mr.  Louis  Ouilmot  informed  me  that  he  did  not 
desire  to  remain  in  the  situation,  and  Mr.  Laframboise  appeared 
to  be  well  qualified,  resides  near  my  office  at  Caldwell 's  Village, 
and  is  very  hospitable  to  the  Indians.     .     .     ." 

It  thus  appears  that  at  the  date  of  that  letter  the  offices  of  the  sub- 
agency,  such  as  they  were,  were  at  Billy  Caldwell's  village,  the  site 
of  the  present  city  of  Council  Bluffs.  How  long  they  were  maintained 
at  that  point  does  not  appear;  but  it  is  evident  that  the  location  was 
merely  temporary,  and  that  they  were  established  (probably  re-estab- 
lished) at  Point  aux  Poulos,  where  was  situated  the  house  mentioned 
as  being  occupied  by  Mr.  Cooper,  as  indicated  by  Mr.  Elliott's  letter 
of  June  1,  1843,  quoted  and  cited  above.  It  does  not  clearly  appear 
whether  Mr,  Elliott  was  allowed  the  funds  for  the  erection  of  a  new 
house;  the  correspondence  relating  to  his  request  indicated  that  the 
Superintendent  of  Indian  Affairs  was  opposed  to  the  making  of  such 
expenditure  at  the  time. 

September  26,  1843,  Sub-Agent  Elliott,  who  had  been  in  charge  of 
the  sub-agency  for  about  four  months,  wrote  regarding  the  Potta- 
wattamie lands  as  follows : 

"These  lands  are  exceedingly  fertile,  but,  owing  to  the 
scarcity  of  timber,  of  rock  and  indeed  minerals  of  every  kind, 
they  are  not  so  valuable  for  the  purposes  of  the  white  man  as 
one  would  suppose  by  looking  at  the  map,  which  shows  this 
region  to  be  the  only  outlet  to  market  for  the  vast  Territory 
of  Iowa.  Still,  their  value  is  sufficient  to  justify  the  Govern- 
ment in  paying  a  very  handsome  price  for  them,  and  it  is  mani- 
fest that  they  must  be  treated  for  at  a  very  early  date." 

This  appraisement  of  the  value  of  the  Pottawattamie  lands  must  be 
regarded  as  almost  humorous  by  readers  of  the  present  day  when 
there  is  scarcely  an  acre  of  the  entire  domain,  except  that  occupied 
by  towns  and  cities,  highways  and  other  public  service  works,  not 
actually  devoted  to  purposes  of  agriculture  of  the  most  profitable 
(•hara(!tor;  and  when  the  newspapers  frequently  announce  sale  at  from 
(Hie  hundred  and  twoity-five  to  two  hundred  dollars  per  acre  at  public 
auction  in  the  settlement  of  estates,  &c. 

Within  the  territory  formerly  occupied  by  the  Pottawattamies  are 


THE   POTTAWATTAMIE   INDIANS  39 

thousands  of  acres  of  the  finest  and  most  profitable  apple  orchards 
in  the  world,  while  the  production  of  corn  and  other  field  crops 
throughout  the  region  is  phenomenal.  These,  coupled  with  the  stock- 
raising  pursuits  of  the  people,  justify  the  belief  that  there  exists  no 
richer  section  anywhere. 

Early  in  1842  circumstances  indicated  serious  trouble  between  the 
Pottawattamies  and  Sioux,  the  latter  never  having  become  reconciled 
to  the  occupancy  of  the  country  by  the  former.  The  Pottawattamies, 
anticipating  attack,  had  arranged  for  assistance  in  the  defense  with 
neighboring  Otoes,  lowas  and  Sacs,  and  war  seemed  imminent.  Colonel 
Kearny,  in  command  at  Fort  Leavenworth,  despatched  Captain  J.  H. 
K,  Burgwin,  with  a  company  of  the  First  Dragoons  to  the  scene  of 
action.  The  troops  arrived  May  31st  and  established  a  military  post 
near  the  Indian  farm  which  they  named  Camp  Fenwick.  In  the  fall 
they  constructed  a  log  cantonment  and  the  name  was  changed  to  Fort 
Croghan,  where  the  command  spent  the  winter.  In  April,  1843,  a 
freshet  in  the  Missouri  river  inundated  the  cantonment,  compelling 
the  command  to  retire  to  the  highlands.  Soon  afterward  the  eminent 
naturalist,  John  James  Audubon,  visited  the  place  and  there  for  the 
first  time  saw  a  Yellow-headed  Troupial.  The  fort  was  abandoned 
October  6,  1843.     (See  Fort  Croghan.) 

The  Pottawattamie  occupancy  of  the  territory  in  Iowa,  in  which  is 
included  the  site  of  the  present  city  of  Council  Bluffs,  continued  for 
a  period  of  a  little  more  than  ten  years — 1837  to  1847 — their  possessory 
right  having  been  terminated  by  a  treaty  negotiated  at  Washington 
during  the  winter  and  spring  of  1846  (see  9  Stat.  853-856),  which  was 
signed  by  the  Iowa  bands  June  5th,  and  by  those  on  the  Osage  river 
June  17th,  of  that  year.  Under  the  terms  of  this  treaty  the  Indians 
relinquished  claim  to  the  Iowa  lands  receiving  in  exchange  a  money 
consideration  and  a  tract  of  land  thirty  miles  square  in  Kansas,  and 
they  were  obligated  to  remove  within  two  years  from  the  date  of 
the  ratification  of  the  treaty  by  the  United  States  Senate,  which 
occurred  July  22,  1846,  and  the  treaty  was  officially  promulgated  by 
proclamation  issued  the  following  day.  These  bands  were  composed 
of  Ottawa,  Chippewa  and  Pottawattamie  Indians  and,  it  was  pro- 
vided by  the  treaty  just  mentioned  that  thereafter  they  should  be 
known  as  the  " Pottowautomie  Nation". 

The  removal  occurred,  or  was  at  least  begun,  in  the  fall  of  1847, 
and  in  reference  to  that  event  Thomas  H.  Harvey,  Superintendent  of 


40  EARLY  DAYS  AT  COUNCIL   BLUFFS 

Indian  Affairs  at  St.  Louis,  addressed  a  communication  to  the  Com- 
missioner of  Indian  Affairs,  dated  October  29,  1847,  wherein  he  said : 

"The  Potawatomies,  although  not  compelled  to  emigrate 
until  July,  1848,  have  commenced  emigration  under  the  most 
satisfactory  circumstances.  I  attended  the  payment  at  the 
Council  Bluffs  sub-agency,  and  urged  their  immediate  emigra- 
tion ;  they  entered  into  it  with  great  spirit,  and  immediately 
after  payment,  started  for  their  new  homes,  crossing  the  Mis- 
souri river  at  different  points  in  large  parties.  ...  I 
presume  before  this  reaches  you,  the  Potawatomie  emigration 
will  have  been  completed. ' ' 

And  he  added,  as  an  apparent  important  piece  of  information,  this 
statement,  viz.: 

"At  the  late  Pottawattamie  treaty  (at  both  the  Council 
Bluffs  and  Osage  river  sub-agencies)  the  Indians  gave  their 
notes  to  the  traders  for  more  than  ninety  thousand  dollars." 
(Sen.  Doc,  30th  Cong.,  1st  Sess.,  Vol.  1,  page  837.) 

The  total  number  of  these  Indians  did  not  exceed  three  thousand, 
so  the  notes  given  to  the  traders  represented  indebtedness  amounting 
to  about  thirty  dollars  per  capita. 

The  precise  date  when  the  Pottawattamies  began  their  removal 
from  the  vicinity  of  the  site  of  the  present  city  of  Council  Bluffs  may 
not  be  more  definitely  fixed  than  it  is  by  the  preceding  quotation; 
that  is  about  September,  1847.  It  is  clearly  established,  however,  that 
the  removal  had  been  completely  effected  prior  to  the  fall  of  1848.  In 
his  official  report  dated  Fort  Leavenworth,  September  26,  1848,  Indian 
Agent  R.  S.  Cummins  said : 

"A  census  of  the  Pottawattamies  I  have  not  been  able  to 
take;  even  if  they  had  been  taken,  they  would  not  fully  have 
answered  the  purpose.  These  Indians  have  but  recently  emi- 
grated to  their  new  country."  (Sen.  Doc,  30th  Cong.,  2d 
Sess.,  Vol.  1,  page  445.) 

Li  a  communication  dated  October  4,  1848,  the  Superintendent  of 
Indian  Affairs  at  St.  Louis,  said: 

"The  Pottawattamies,  who,  at  the  date  of  my  annual  report 
of  last  year,  liad  not  emigrated,  have  since  removed  to  their 
new  homes,  without  causing  the  slightest  embarrassment  to 
the  f^overnmont ;  they  deserve  much  credit  for  tlieir  prompt- 


THE   POTTAWATTAMIE    INDIANS  41 

ness,  especially  as  the  entire  emigration  was  effected  within 
the  time  limit  of  the  treaty  for  their  removal.  They  are  pleased, 
and  justly  so,  with  their  new  homes,  and  I  am  gratified  to  be 
able  to  inform  you  that  they  are  now  living  in  fraternal  amity, 
after  having  lived  in  separate  bauds  for  so  many  years. ' '  ( Sen. 
Doc,  30th  Cong.,  2d  Sess.,  Vol.  1,  page  439.) 

In  his  official  report  for  the  year,  dated  November  30,  1848,  the 
Commissioner  of  Indian  Affairs  stated  that : 

"Within  the  past  year  the  Pottawattamies,  who  have  hereto- 
fore been  separated  (the  larger  portion  being  in  Iowa  and  the 
others  on  the  Osage  river),  have  completed  their  removal  to 
their  new  country  on  the  Kansas  river,  between  the  Delawares 
and  Shawnees,  where  they  are  now  comfortably  settled.  .  .  . 
Much  credit  is  due  them,  not  only  for  their  prompt  removal, 
but  for  the  peaceable  and  orderly  manner  in  which  it  was  con- 
ducted. It  was  a  new  feature  in  our  Indian  system,  to  see  an 
entire  tribe  of  Indians  quietly  and  without  disorder  of  any  kind 
remove  themselves  to  a  new  country,  nearl}^  two  hundred  miles 
from  most  of  them,  in  conformity  with  a  stipulation  to  that 
effect  in  a  treaty  which  had  been  made  with  the  government; 
and  bearing  their  own  expenses  out  of  funds  set  apart  for  that 
purpose."     (Sen.  Doc,  30th  Cong.,  2d  Sess.,  Vol.  1,  page  395.) 

The  Commissioner,  in  this  same  report,  referring  to  the  Winne- 
bago Indians,  said: 

"The  removal  of  this  tribe,  and  of  the  Pottawattamies,  has 
entirely  freed  Iowa  of  her  Indian  population."  (Sen.  Doc, 
30th  Cong.,  2d  Sess.,  Vol.  1,  page  435.) 

During  their  residence  in  Southwestern  Iowa  the  Pottawattamies 
made  very  slight  progress  toward  civilization  and  established  little 
or  nothing  resembling  permanent  homes  or  improvements  of  value. 
Their  shortcomings  in  these  respects  were  due,  no  doubt  to  their  un- 
settled condition.  There  was  scarcely  an  interval  between  the  com- 
pletion of  the  treaty  of  1833  by  which  they  surrendered  their  lands 
in  Illinois  and  Indiana  and  the  beginning  of  overtures  for  the  cession 
of  the  lands  to  which  they  were  about  to  be  removed,  it  having  occurred 
to  some  one  that  they  should  be  located  farther  south,  at  some  point 
south  of  the  Missouri  river.  (Sen.  Doc,  24th  Cong.,  2d  Sess.,  Vol.  1, 
pages  392-3,  395-6.) 

Efforts  to  secure  a  new  treatv  with  these  Indians  continued  to  be 


42  EARLY  DAYS  AT  COUNCIL  BLUFFS 

made  from  time  to  time  thereafter  during  their  entire  occupancy  of 
the  lands  in  Iowa  and  on  the  Osage  river.  Sub-agent  R.  B.  Mitchell, 
in  a  report  dated  September  11,  1846,  said : 

"The  unsettled  condition  of  this  nation  for  some  years  has 
prevented  their  making  the  improvements  necessary  for  con- 
venience and  comfort."  (Sen.  Doc,  29th  Cong.,  2d  Sess., 
Vol.  1,  page  300.) 

The  Missouri  river  near  the  site  of  the  present  city  of  Council 
Bluffs  was  reached  by  the  advance  guard  of  the  Mormon  emigration 
to  the  Rocky  Mountains,  June  14,  1846;  a  few  days  after  the  Potta- 
wattamie treaty  had  been  signed  by  the  Indians  in  that  vicinity,  and 
three  days  before  it  was  signed  by  those  residing  in  the  Osage  country. 
Their  arrival  was  announced  to  the  Department  at  Washington  by 
report  of  the  Superintendent  of  Indian  Affairs,  dated  St.  Louis,  Sep- 
tember 5,  1846.    He  said : 

"There  is  at  this  time,  and  has  been  for  several  months,  a 
large  number  of  Mormons  (supposed  to  be  4,000  to  8,000)  in 
the  Indian  country.  They  have  passed  into  the  Potawatomie 
Country  at  the  Council  Bluffs.  A  large  number  have  crossed 
the  Missouri  river  and  are  on  their  way  to  Grand  Island,  in 
the  Platte  or  Nebraska  river.  Another  portion  of  them  are  de- 
sirous to  remain  next  spring  on  the  Boyer  river,  in  Potawatomie 
Country ;  to  which  they  have  obtained  the  consent  of  the  In- 
dians. The  sub-agent  at  that  place  reports  that  they  are  con- 
ducting themselves  well,  and  do  not  seem  disposed  to  interfere 
at  all  with  the  Indians.  I  have  instructed  him  to  use  his  in- 
fluence to  prevent  a  waste  of  timber  by  them."  (Sen.  Doc, 
29th  Cong.,  2d  Sess.,  Vol.  1,  page  287.) 

These  Mormons,  the  Pottawattamie  Indians,  and  here  and  there  a 
"gentile"  pioneer,  occupied  this  southwestern  Iowa  country,  the 
Mormon  villages  being  scattered  about  as  greatly  as  those  of  the 
Indians,  for  upward  of  a  year  prior  to  Indian  removal,  and,  inasmuch 
as  neither  the  records  of  the  Indian  Office  nor  those  of  the  Mormon 
Church  disclose  serious  difficulty  among  them,  it  may  be  assumed  that 
they  dwelled  together  in  harmony  and  brotherly  love.  (See  The 
Mormons.) 


THE  OLD  BLOCKHOUSE. 

Perhaps  no  one  object  at  or  near  the  site  of  the  present  city  of 
Council  Bluffs  has  afforded  a  wider  field  for  surmise,  discussion  and 
dissemination  of  erroneous  information  than  the  "Old  Blockhouse" 
of  frontier  days.  It  stood  for  about  twenty  years  (1837  to  1857)  upon 
the  plateau  crowning  the  blunt  nose  of  the  hill  jutting  into  and  almost 
perpendicularly  towering,  something  like  fifty  feet,  above  the  road, 
now  called  Broadway,  between  the  present-day  Grace  and  Union 
streets  (the  latter  being  known  as  Spring  Street  at  an  early  day). 

From  the  earliest  occupation  of  the  country  by  white  people — 1846 — 
to  the  time  of  its  demolition — 1856-1857 — it  was  commonly  mentioned 
as  the  "Old  Fort"  or  "Old  Mission",  both  of  which  designations  were 
appropriate,  because  it  was  originally  constructed  by  United  States 
troops  for  military  purposes  (1837)  and  afterward  (1838-1841)  occu- 
pied as  a  Jesuit  Mission  known  as  St.  Joseph  or  St.  Mary. 

June  4,  1853,  at  the  age  of  a  little  more  than  ten  years,  the  writer 
began  residence  at  Council  Bluffs  with  the  family  of  his  father — 
Lysander  W.  Babbitt, — at  which  time  the  "Old  Fort"  or  "Mission 
House",  surmounted  by  a  cross,  occupied  the  above-described  site. 
His  home  was  about  a  half  mile  farther  up  (east  and  north)  on 
Broadway — now  known  as  "Babbitt  Place",  and  almost  daily  while 
the  old  building  remained  he  passed  it  at  a  distance  of  only  a  few 
yards,  and  often  played  about  it  with  other  children.  In  his  memory 
it  is  pictured  as  a  log  structure,  about  24  x  40  feet  in  dimension  of 
ground  space,  one  and  one-half  story  in  height,  with  an  ordinary 
sloping  roof,  with  embrasures  (small  windows)  on  north  and  west 
sides,  and  loopholes  for  musketry  all  around,  standing  in  the  open 
without  stockade  or  other  enclosure,  or  any  evidence  that  it  had  ever 
been  enclosed.  Near  by  was  a  grave  yard  surrounded  by  a  fence 
constructed  of  hand-riven  palings. 

During  the  year  1856  intense  rivalry  existed  between  what  were 
termed  "up-town"  and  "down-town"  portions  of  the  city.  The 
principal  hotel,  recently  erected,  was  located  "down  town",  and,  for 
the  benefit  of  their  end  of  the  toAvn,  a  company  of  "up-towners"  was 
formed  for  the  purpose  of  building  a  better  and  finer  hostelry,  the 
site  of  the  old  blockhouse  being  selected  for  its  location.     The  old 


44  EARLY  DAYS   AT   COUNCIL   BLUFFS 

fort,  then  in  a  tumbled-down  condition,  was  removed  either  that 
Fall  or  the  following  Spring,  ?nd  the  ground,  still  practically  in  its 
natural  condition  (a  plateau  but  slightly  graded  when  the  blockhouse 
was  built)  was  cut  away  so  that  a  precipitous  bank  something  like 
thirty  feet  high  formed  the  south  line  of  Pierce  Street,  where  the 
sharp  pitch  of  the  great  bluff  swept  down  to  the  plateau,  and  the 
grading  necessary  to  the  preparation  of  the  hotel  building  site  greatly 
reduced  the  elevation  of  the  blunt  nose  of  bluff  jutting  onto  Broadway. 
Beyond  the  grading  here  mentioned  nothing  was  done  toward  the 
erection  of  the  new  hotel ;  probably  because  of  the  financial  crisis  of 
the  Fall  of  1857. 

An  article  entitled  "The  Old  Blockhouse  at  Council  Bluffs",  written 
in  August,  1896,  by  Hon.  Dexter  C.  Bloomer,  of  Council  Bluffs,  ap- 
peared in  the  October  issue  of  the  Annals  of  Iowa  for  that  year  (Third 
Series,  Volume  2,  No.  7,  page  549),  with  an  illustration  said  to 
have  been  prepared  from  a  sketch  made  from  memory  by  George 
Simons,  wherein  it  is  said : 

' '  This  was  the  first  building  erected  in  Pottawattamie  county. 
In  1838  the  Pottawattamie  Indians  were  removed  from  the 
'Platte  Purchase',  so-called,  in  Missouri,  to  a  location  on  the 
Missouri  river  which  subsequently  was  organized  into  a  county 
and  took  the  name  of  the  tribe.     .     .     . 

"In  1839  the  general  government  stationed  two  companies  of 
troops  among  these  Indians  for  the  purpose  of  keeping  peace 
and  quiet  among  them,  although,  through  the  careful  manage- 
ment of  their  Agent,  their  presence  did  not  prove  necessary  for 
that  purpose.  These  troops  located  themselves  a  short  distance 
up  in  the  bluffs  in  the  little  subsidiary  valley  of  Indian  creek 
and  near  a  living  spring  found  at  that  point.  Here,  on  a  gentle 
elevation,  in  the  same  year,  they  erected  a  blockhouse  of  logs  and 
rough  puncheons  and  raised  the  American  flag  over  it.  Its  sides 
were  pierced  with  numerous  holes  tlirough  which  muskets 
could  be  discharged  in  case  of  assault  from  without.  The 
barracks,  tents  and  parade  grounds,  and  probably  some  minor 
structures,  were  located  in  the  vicinity  of  this  building.  No 
record  can  be  found  of  the. names  of  tlie  officers  in  command  of 
these  troops.  They  did  not  remain  a  great  while,  for  the  reason 
already  stated.  With  the  Indians  came  a  Roman  Catholic 
Mission  in  charge  of  Fathers  De  Sraet  and  Verreydt.  Tiiey  also 
built  for  themselves  a  rude  dwelling,  but  when  the  troops  left 
they  took  possession  of  the  government  buldings,  blockhouse 
and  barracks,  for  n^ligious  purposes,  erecting  a  wooden  cross 


THE  OLD  BLOCKHOUSE 


45 


over  one  of  them.  When  the  writer  took  up  his  residence  in 
Council  Bluffs,  in  1855,  these  buildings  (as  shown  in  the  cut), 
one  of  them  surmounted  by  a  cross,  were  yet  standing.     .     .     . " 

In  the  four-volume  ''History  of  Iowa"  compiled  and  published  by 
Hon.  Benjamin  F.  Gue,  the  foregoing  narrative,  with  identically  the 
same  illustration  is  substantially  reproduced.  (Volume  1,  pages 
100-101.) 


THE  OLD  BLOCKHOUSE,   FORT  AND  MISSION 
(Picture  by  George  Simon.) 

This  is  a  reproduction  of  an  illustration  accompanying  an  article 
by  Hon.  D.  C.  Bloomer,  published  in  Annals  of  Iowa  in  1896  (3d 
Series,  Volume  2,  page  594),  the  cut  having  been  made  from  a  painting 
said  to  have  been  done  by  George  Simons,  from  memory. 


46  EARLY  DAYS   AT   COUNCIL   BLUFFS 

In  a  two- volume  "History  of  Pottawattamie  County,  Iowa",  written, 
compiled  and  published  by  Homer  H.  Field  and  Hon.  Joseph  R, 
Reed,  of  Council  Bluffs  (Volume  1,  page  6),  appears  the  following: 

"The  conditions  above  described  continued  until  1838,  when, 
during  President  Van  Buren's  administration,  the  Pottawat- 
tamie Indians  were  assigned  a  reservation  here,  and  Davis 
Hardin  was  appointed  to  instruct  them  in  farming.  He,  with 
his  family  and  a  company  of  soldiers  arrived  here  on  the 
steamer  Antelope  from  Fort  Leavenworth,  in  the  spring  of 
that  year.  .  .  .  Arriving  here  they  found  the  country 
a  solitude.  They  located  by  a  big  spring  on  what  is  now  East 
Broadway  and  the  soldiers  immediately  commenced  building 
a  house  for  the  Hardins,  and  then  a  fort  on  the  promontory 
that  was  a  continuation  of  the  hill  between  Franklin  and 
Lincoln  avenues,  and  which  at  that  time  jutted  into  what  is 
now  Broadway,  where  the  dwelling  of  the  late  John  Clausen 
now  stands. ' ' 

Many  other  stories  relating  to  this  old  fort  have  been  published 
from  time  to  time  in  current  newspapers  and  otherwise,  and  the  date 
of  construction  has  been  stated  by  some  to  have  been  as  early  as 
1819,  running  from  that  to  the  years  above  given ;  but,  in  no  instance 
that  has  come  to  the  knowledge  of  the  writer,  has  a  letter-press  descrip- 
tion of  it,  other  than  as  above  set  out,  been  given. 

Hon.  H.  H.  Field,  a  man  of  experience  in  estimating  the  dimensions 
of  standing  buildings,  now  residing  at  Council  Bluffs,  having  been 
there  continuously  since  1855,  in  answer  to  inquiry,  says — 

"The  ruins  of  the  old  blockhouse  were  standing  when  I  first 
came  here.  I  should  think  it  was  about  20  feet  square.  It 
disappeared  in  the  Spring  of  1857,  and  several  feet  of  the 
ground  was  taken  off  and  put  on  Broadway  to  improve  the 
grade  ;  but  by  what  authority  I  do  not  know,  but  it  was  rumored 
that  a  hotel  was  to  be  built  there  by  L.  W.  Babbitt  and  Dr. 
S.  H.  Craig.  If  there  was  anything  in  it  the  great  crash  that 
came  in  the  Fall  of  that  year  put  an  end  to  it.  I  don't  know 
when  the  (Government  relinquished  title  to  it,  but  suppose  when 
.Judge  Casady  was  commissioned  to  make  deeds  to  the  occu- 
pants. John  Warner  was  the  first  that  owned  it  to  my  knowl- 
edge as  he  <'Tnployed  me  to  fence  it,  and  John  Clausen  the  last, 
as  I  worked  on  liis  dwelling  some  forty  years  ago.  The  lot  then 
consisted  of  nearly  all  the  square  hounded  by  Broadway,  G-race, 
Union  and  Pierce  streets." 


THE  OLD  BLOCKHOUSE  47 

Hon.  Spencer  Smith  whose  arrival  at  Council  Bluffs  was  at  about 
the  same  time  as  that  of  the  writer,  but  at  a  slig^htly  earlier  age, 
answering  an  inquiry,  says : 

'  *  Since  the  receipt  of  your  letter  I  have  been  trying  to  refresh 
my  memory  of  early  days,  but  find  little  response  as  to  the 
'Mission  House'  of  which  you  make  inquiry.  I  called  on  my 
way  to  lunch  today  at  the  library  and  took  a  look  at  the 
picture  in  Mr.  Bloomer's  sketch  which  appears  to  me  about  as 
it  looked  when  I  first  saw  it.  I  know  of  no  picture  of  the  '  Old 
Fort '  as  we  called  it  other  than  the  one  given  by  Mr,  Bloomer. ' ' 

Mr.  Ephraim  Huntington,  at  about  the  age  of  seven  years,  began 
residence  as  a  member  of  the  family  of  his  father — John  Huntington, 
— at  Kanesville,  as  the  place  was  then  named,  in  1850.  In  a  con- 
versation with  the  writer,  in  September,  1915,  speaking  of  the  old 
blockhouse,  he  said: 

''I  remember  it  as  it  appeared  to  me  when  a  boy  and 
until  it  was  demolished.  It  was  originally  surrounded  with 
a  stockade  several  feet  high  and  constructed  of  very  heavy  oak 
timbers. ' ' 

In  a  communication  dated  June  13,  1916,  referring  to  the  illustra- 
tion above  mentioned  which  had  been  called  to  his  attention,  he  said : 

"The  picture  of  the  Fort  and  Mission  resembles  the  build- 
ings, &c.,  very  much  as  I  remember  it." 

Reverend  Henry  De  Long,  then  a  boy  of  twelve  or  fourteen  years, 
accompanied  the  Mormons  from  Nauvoo  as  far  as  the  site  of  Council 
Bluffs,  arriving  in  July,  1846,  and  has  continued  to  reside  there  ever 
since.  He  is  now  the  "dean  of  old  settlers"  in  the  county.  Upon 
request  he  furnished  a  very  complete  description  of  the  "Old  Fort'' 
as  memory  recalls  its  first  appearance  to  him,  to-wit : 

"There  were  three  buildings  in  the  fort.  The  main  building- 
was  what  we'd  call  a  story  and  a  half,  about  sixty  feet  long  and 
twenty-four  feet  wide,  running  parallel  with  Broadway.  It 
was  made  of  hewed  logs  and  the  logs  were  hewed  square  so 
they  fit  right  down  together.  The  port  holes  were  made  by 
sawing  out  half  of  the  log  and  should  judge  they  were  about 
eight  feet  apart. 

"There  was  a  building  just  west  and  south  of  the  main 
building,  built  in  the  form  of  a  chapel,  with  a  place  for  a  bell 


48  EARLY  DAYS  AT  COUNCIL  BLUFFS 

in  the  center,  I  think  it  was  used  by  the  Catholics.  This 
chapel  was  about  24  x  30. 

"There  was  a  small  one-story  building  back  of  the  fort,  to 
the  east.  Don't  know  what  it  was  used  for,  but  it  looked  like 
it  might  have  been  officer 's  quarters.     It  was  about  16  x  20, 

"The  roofs  were  made  of  clapboards  which  were  smooth  and 
of  much  better  appearance  than  usual. 

"The  chapel  roof  was  built  four  square,  running  to  a  center 
containing  a  cupola. 

"The  other  roofs  were  made  with  gable  ends. 

' '  There  was  no  stockade  surrounding  the  fort, ' ' 

Commenting  upon  the  illustration  accompanying  the  Bloomer  article, 
to  which  his  attention  had  been  directed  after  he  had  written  the 
foregoing  description,  "Uncle  Henry",  as  he  is  familiarly  called  by 
intimate  friends,  said: 

"With  the  main  building  I  speak  of  torn  down,  the  picture 
is  probably  a  fair  representation  of  the  fort  in  1855;  but  I 
think  this  picture  was  drawn  by  someone  from  memory  and 
is  not  an  exact  copy  of  the  buildings  as  they  were.  The 
picture  shows  two  buildings  and  the  smaller  one  is  what  I 
recollect  was  probably  used  for  officers'  quarters." 

It  is  presumed,  in  absence  of  citations  of  authority  or  any  sources 
of  information  by  the  writers  named,  that  all  of  the  foregoing  matter 
quoted  is  founded  upon  memory,  hearsay,  legend  and  tradition;  and 
it  is  given  here  for  such  consideration  as  may  be  merited.  Official 
data  relating  to  the  old  blockhouse  appears  to  be  meagre  and  difficult 
of  access  or  discovery  at  this  late  date. 

In  connection  with  Mr,  J.  N,  Nicollet's  report  of  his  explorations 
made  in  the  Missouri  river  country  in  1838  and  1839  is  published  a 
map  prepared  by  the  War  Department,  upon  which  at  or  near  the 
site  of  the  present  city  of  Council  Bluffs  is  shown  "Fort  Croghan". 
For  a  time  it  was  assumed  by  the  writer  that  the  old  blockhouse  and 
Fort  Croghan  were  identical ;  but,  in  a  certain  sense,  tliis  was  error. 
No  name  for  the  old  blockhouse  appears  in  any  of  the  official  records  of 
the  War  Department  nor  in  those  of  the  Office  of  Indian  Affairs, 
though  it  is  mentioned  occasionally  in  letters  from  the  agents  and 
sub-agents.  In  Mr,  Nicollet's  report  a  reference  to  "Camp  Kearney" 
is  apparently,  but  not  necessarily,  applicable  to  this  old  fort, 

P"'ort  Croghan  was  not  a  blockhouse  or  fortification ;  but  merely 
a  military  cantonment  located,  originally,  near  the  old  Indian  farm 


THE  OLD  BLOCKHOUSE  49 

upon  which  Mr,  Davis  Hardin  resided  while  and  after  acting  as  farmer 
for  the  Pottawattamies ;  and,  because  of  a  flood  in  the  Missouri  river  in 
April,  1843,  was  removed  to  the  hills.  The  old  blockhouse  appears  to 
have  been  used  by  the  troops  by  whom  Fort  Croghan  was  founded, 
and  was  no  doubt  considered  a  part  of  that  fort  or  cantonment. 

Richard  S.  Elliott,  Pottawattamie  sub-agent,  in  a  letter  to  the 
Superintendent  of  Indian  Affairs  (unpublished)  dated  June  1,  1843, 
said : 

''There  are  in  the  block  house  of  the  Dragroons  some  goods 
which  were  seized  in  November  last,  and  which  yet,  as  I  under- 
stand, await  their  disposition  by  the  Department." 

Senate  Document  No.  237,  26th  Congress,  2d  Session,  consists  solely 
of  a  "Eeport  intended  to  illustrate  a  map  of  The  Hydrographic  Basin 
of  Upper  Mississippi  River,  made  by  J.  N.  Nicollet  while  in  employ 
under  the  Bureau  of  the  Corps  of  Topographical  Engineers",  which 
is  the  map  referred  to  above.  On  pages  93  and  94  is  the  following 
language,  to-wit : 

"Assured  that  every  reader  will  partake  of  my  sentiments 
on  this  subject,  I  shall,  without  further  prelude  or  apology, 
acknowledge  the  services  I  have  received,  in  this  respect,  from 
.  .  .  The  Revs.  P.  J.  De  Smet  and  Felix  Werreydf,  mis- 
sionaries among  the  Pottawattamies  at  Camp  Kearney,  near 
Council  Bluffs  on  the  Missouri.     .     .     ." 

On.  pages  98  and  99  is  found  matter  pertinent  to  the  subject  here 
under  treatment,  and,  although  some  of  it  may  seem  to  be  irrelevant, 
it  is  fully  quoted  because  of  the  general  information  contained,  to-wit : 

''When  the  course  of  my  observations  carried  me  to  the 
regions  of  the  North  and  Northwest,  the  stationary  barometer 
of  St,  Louis,  to  which  my  portable  barometers  were  referred, 
became  too  distant  for  simultaneous  observations  to  be  any 
longer  comparable.  I  had  foreseen  this  difficulty,  and  had 
succeeded  in  establishing,  as  soon  as  needed,  two  new  fixed 
barometer  stations,  much  higher  north — the  one  at  St,  Peters, 
on  the  Mississippi:  the  other  at  Camp  Kearney,  near  Council 
Bluffs,  on  the  Missouri.  At  each  of  these  points  was  a  sta- 
tionary barometer,  corresponding  four  or  five  times  a  day  with 
the  barometer  at  St,  Louis,  and  aft'ording,  at  the  same  time, 
for  my  portable  barometers,  a  reference  to  one  or  the  other, 
according  as  my  position  at  any  time  brought  one  or  the  other 
nearest, 

"Nevertheless,  as  both  of  these  stations  are  at  a  great  dis- 


50  EARLY  DAYS  AT  COUNCIL  BLUFFS 

tance  from  St.  Louis,  whether  the  length  of  the  journey  neces- 
sary for  communication  between  them,  or  their  geographic 
positions  and  direct  distance  apart,  be  considered,  it  became 
necessary  that  their  differences  of  level,  as  respects  St.  Louis, 
should  be  determined  by  the  greatest  number  of  observations 
possible.  In  this  view,  I  deem  it  fit  to  introduce  here  the 
results  of  these  determinations : 

"1.  The  station  at  Camp  Kearney  was  occupied  by  the 
venerable  missionaries,  Rev.  Messrs.  De  Smet  and  Werreydt. 
I  furnished  them  with  a  barometer,  well  compared  with  that 
of  Dr.  Engelman  at  St.  Louis,  and  with  my  own,  and  delivered 
it  at  their  missionary  station  in  good  condition.  Mr.  De  Smet, 
with  whom  I  had  passed  some  days  of  travel  on  the  Missouri, 
soon  made  himself  acquainted  with  the  manner  of  taking  obser- 
vations; and  proved  it,  in  furnishing  me  with  a  four-months' 
series,  made  with  a  care  that  the  most  scrupulous  examination 
could  only  confirm,  and  embracing  the  period  between  the  17th 
of  May  and  17th  of  September,  1839, — an  interval  during 
which  I  was  exploring  in  the  Northwest. 

' '  The  barometer  at  St.  Louis  was  situated  in  a  small  exposed 
plain ;  that  at  Camp  Kearney  was  placed  in  the  valley  of  the 
Missouri,  which  is  deep,  and  often  three  to  five  miles  wide. 
Using  only  the  noon  observations  for  both,  grouping  them  20, 
and  applying  the  reduction  of  the  stations  to  their  respective 
levels,  the  calculations  give  the  following  results : 

Station  at  Camp  Kearney,  above  St.  Louis  by — 

20  observations  at  noon  in  May  and  June,  1839 596  feet 

20  "  "      "     "June,1839.. 680'' 

20  "  "      "     "  June  and  July,  1839 633    " 

20  **  "      "     ''  July  and  August,  1839 659    " 

20  *'  "      "     "  August,   1839    694    " 

13  **  "      "     "   September,  1839  ...667    '* 

113          "            "      "     "  Mean  difference  in  level.... 655    " 
Reduction  of  St.  Louis  to  Gulf 332    " 

Altitude  of  Missouri  at  low  water,  near  Council 
Bluffs,  above  Gulf  of  Mexico 1,037    " 

The  foregoing  matter  may  be  found,  also,  in  House  Executive 
Documents,  28th  Congress,  2d  Session,  Vol.  1,  No.  52,  page  94. 

The  name  "Camp  Kearney"  used  by  Mr.  Nicollet  probably  relates 
to  the  camp  of  his  exploring  party,  in  the  near  vicinity  of  the  old 
blockhouse,  and  was  not  intended  to  apply  either  to  the  blockhouse 
itself  or  to  any  other  military  encampment  proper  in  the  neighbor- 


THE  OLD  BLOCKHOUSE  51 

hood.     The  missionaries  De  Smet  and  Verreydt  were  at  the  time  in 
occupancy  of  the  blockhouse. 

A  letter  of  inquiry,  addressed  to  the  War  Department,  in  which 
reference  was  made  to  Mr.  Nicollet's  report,  was  returned  with  en- 
dorsement as  follows: 

''WAR  DEPARTMENT 

The  Adjutant  General's  Office 

Washington,  January  22,  1916. 

"Respectfully  returned  to — 
"Mr.  Charles  H.  Babbitt, 

933  Massachusetts  Avenue,  N.  W., 
Washington,  D.  C. 

' '  Such  search  of  the  records  of  this  Department  as  it  has  been 
found  practicable  to  make,  based  on  the  data  submitted,  has 
resulted  in  failure  to  identify  any  record  of  the  establishment 
of  a  Camp  Kearny  at  or  near  the  present  city  of  Council 
Bluffs,  Iowa.  The  records  indicate  that  Captain  D.  B.  Moore, 
with  Company  C,  1st  Dragoons,  was  sent  by  Colonel  S.  W. 
Kearny  from  Fort  Leavenworth  to  that  section  in  1837  for 
the  purpose  of  protecting  the  Pottawattamies,  then  about  to 
move  to  their  new  country,  and  with  instructions  to  throw  up 
a  block  house  of  one  story  about  25  feet  square,  and  with 
sufficient  loop  holes,  at  such  place  as  Captain  Moore  might 
deem  eligible.  The  location  is  more  particularly  described  as 
being  above  the  State  Line  of  Missouri,  near  the  river  and 
not  far  from  Belle  View.  Captain  Moore  returned  to  Fort 
Leavenworth  early  in  November,  1837,  when  he  reported  to 
Colonel  Kearney  that  he  had  reached  the  locality  mentionel 
August  4,  1837 ;  erected  a  block-house  and  departed  November 
1,  1837. 

"The  records  further  show  that  Colonel  Kearny  himself 
spent  about  12  days  in  that  vicinity  between  April  12  and  24, 
1838,  and  in  that  time  examined  the  country  above  and  below 
the  Platte  and  fixed  upon  a  site  for  a  military  post. 

"It  is  further  shown  by  the  records  that  Captain  J.  H.  K. 
Burgwin,  1st  Dragoons,  with  a  company  of  that  regiment,  was 
stationed  near  Council  Bluffs  from  about  May  31,  1842,  to 
about  October  6,  1843.  He  called  his  post  Camp  Fenwick,  and 
on  his  recommendation  it  was  named  by  the  War  Department 
about  November,  1842,  Fort  Croghan.  It  appears  that  this 
post  was  about  6  miles  from  'the  Bluff'  and  at  a  point  that 
was  reached  by  an  excessive  overflow  in  the  Spring  of  1843. 

"Nothing  has  been  found  of  record  to  indicate  that  any  of 
the  stations  or  posts  mentioned  was  ever  called  Camp  Kearny 

H.  P.  McCain, 

The  Adjutant  General.'' 


52  EARLY  DAYS   AT  COUNCIL   BLUFFS 

A  personal  examination  of  the  records  referred  to  in  the  foregoing 
note  disclosed  the  following  orders  and  reports  relating  to  the  errand 
of  Captain  Moore  and  the  erection  of  a  blockhouse,  to- wit : 

' '  Order  No.  11.        Headquarters  1st  Dept.  West.  Division, 

Fort  Leavenworth,  July  19,  1837. 
"Colonel  Kearny  will  detail  a  Troop  of  Dragoons  from  his 
Regiment  for  imm.ediate  service  in  the  vicinity  of  the  position 
to  be  occupied  by  the  Pottawattamie  Indians  opposite  to  Belle- 
view  on  the  Missouri  river.  Special  instructions  will  be  given 
to  the  Commanding  Officer  of  the  Troop  respecting  the  duties 
to  be  assigned  to  it.     .     .     . 

''By  order  of  Brigadier  General  Atkinson. 

T.  S.  Alexander, 

A,  D.  C.  &  Ast.  A.G." 


' '  Headquarters  1st  Regiment  Dragoons, 

Fort  Leavenworth,  July  21,  1837. 
"Sir: 

"You  will,  in  command  of  Company  'C,'  march  to  the  Potta- 
wattamie country,  above  the  State  line  of  Missouri,  and  take 
a  position  in  it  near  the  river,  and  not  far  from  'Belle  View', 
so  as  to  intervene  between  those  Indians  and  the  Sack  and  others 
as  reside  above  them. 

"As  the  Pottawattamies  are  now  about  to  move  to  their 
New  Country  your  object  will  be  to  afford  them  protection 
from  being  molested  by  other  Indians.     .     .     . 

"I  wish  you  to  throw  up  a  Blockliouse  of  one  story,  about 
25  feet  square,  at  such  place  as  you  may  deem  eligible,  with  a 
sufficient  number  of  loop  holes,  which  will  serve  as  a  hospital 
for  any  sick  you  may  have  and  as  a  storehouse  for  your  pro- 
visions.    .     .     . 

S.  W.  Kearny, 

Colonel  1st  Regiment  Dragoons. 
Captain  D.  B.  Moore, 

1st  Regiment  Dragoons." 


"Headquarters  1st  Regiment  Dragoons, 

Fort  Leavenworth,  August  5,  1837. 
"  ...  Company 'C,  (66  strong)  under  Captain  Moore, 
1st  Dragoons,  by  order  of  Brigadier  General  Atkinson,  of  the 
19th,  left  here,  on  the  22nd  \iHo.,  to  take  a  position  in  the  Potta- 
wattamy  Country  for  the  purpose  of  giving  confidence  to  those 
emigrating  Indians  and  affording  them  protection  (if  neces- 
sary)  froiri  being  (iistiirbcd  by  the  Indians  above  them.     The 


THE  OLD  BLOCKHOUSE  53 

service  of  the  company,  I  think,  will  not  be  required  after  the 
1st  of  October,  at  which  time  I  will  look  for  its  return. 
S.  W.  Kearny, 

Colonel  1st  Regiment  Dragoons. 
General  William  Clark, 

Superintendent  of  Indian  Affairs,  St.  Louis." 


"Fort  Leavenworth,  November  11,  1837. 
"I  have  the  honor  to  inform  you  that,  in  compliance  with 
your  order  of  the  21st  July,  1837,  dated  at  Forth  Leavenworth, 
I  took  a  position  in  the  Pottawattamie  Country,  with  my  Com- 
pany '  C ',  1st  Dragroons,  at  a  point  near  Belle- View,  on  the  east 
side  of  the  Missouri  river,  at  which  place  I  erected  a  Blockhouse 
for  the  defense  of  the  Pottawattamies  while  they  are  moving  to 
their  new  land.  I  arrived  there  on  the  4th  of  August  and  re- 
mained until  the  1st  of  November,  1837,  when  I  broke  camp  and 
marched  to  this  post  in  pursuance  of  your  order. 

D.  B.  Moore, 
Captain  1st  Regiment  Dragoons. 
Colonel  S.  W.  Kearny, 

Commanding  1st  Regiment  Dragoons." 

The  foregoing  shows  conclusively  that  a  blockhouse  about  25  feet 
square,  was  constructed,  in  1837,  in  the  vicinity  of  the  site  of  the 
present  city  of  Council  Bluffs.  It  has  been  found  impossible  to  secure 
equally  as  positive  proof  that  the  blockhouse  then  erected  and  the 
''Old  Blockhouse  at  Council  Bluffs",  the  "Old  Fort"  that  Colonel 
Kearny  gave  to  De  Smet  in  1838,  are  identical.  But,  in  absence  of 
any  indication  either  through  hearsay,  legend  or  tradition,  that  any 
other  blockhouse  was  ever  known  to  exist  in  that  neighborhood,  and 
taking  all  circumstances  into  consideration,  little  room  for  doubt  in 
that  regard  may  be  reasonably  entertained. 

Papers  on  file  in  the  Indian  Office  at  Washington  relating  to  the 
emigration  of  the  Pottawattamies,  reproduced  in  connection  with 
that  portion  of  this  booklet  entitled  "Pottawattamie  Indians",  prove 
that  General  Atkinson,  commanding  the  First  Department  of  the 
Western  Division  of  the  Army,  personally  superintended  the  removal 
of  a  part  of  the  tribe  or  nation  from  the  ' '  Platte  Purchase ' ' ;  that 
he  arrived  with  them  on  board  of  the  steamboat  "Kansas"  July  28, 
1837,  and  landed  them  at  a  point  on  the  east  (left)  bank  of  the  Missouri 
river,  about  eighteen  miles  above  the  mouth  of  the  Platte  river  and 
there  turned  them  over  to  the  proper  agent;    that  one  week  later 


54  EARLY  DAYS  AT  COUNCIL   BLUFFS 

Captain  Moore  arrived  for  the  purpose  of  protecting  them  from 
Northern  foes,  and  erected  a  blockhouse  for  that  purpose,  it  may 
be  presumed  that  he  located  it  at  a  convenient  place;  the  fact  that 
Billy  Caldwell,  one  of  the  principal  Pottawattamie  chiefs,  located  his 
village  precisely  upon  the  spot  where  the  original  town  from  which 
Council  Bluffs  developed  became  situated,  and  that  a  blockhouse 
actually  existed  at  that  place,  would  appear  to  be  strong  circum- 
stantial evidence  in  support  of  the  presumption  that  it  was  the  one 
built  by  Captain  Moore. 

In  the  four- volume  book  entitled  "Life,  Letters  and  Travels  of 
Father  Pierre-Jean  De  Smet,  S.  J.,  1808-1873,  by  Hiram  Martin 
Chittenden  and  Alfred  Talbot  Richardson",  on  pages  14  to  16  of 
Volume  I,  is  found  the  following: 

"In  the  Spring  of  1838  he  (De  Smet)  was  sent  with  Father 
Verrydt  and  two  lay  brothers  to  found  a  mission  among  the 
Pottawattamies,  a  part  of  whom  were  located  about  where  the 
city  of  Council  Bluffs,  Iowa,  now  stands.  .  .  .  Father 
De  Smet  left  St.  Louis  by  the  steamboat  Howard  May  10,  1838. 
.  .  .  They  seem  to  have  first  occupied  an  abandoned  fort 
turned  over  to  them  by  Colonel  S.  W.  Kearney;  but  Father 
De  Smet  says  that  they  also  erected  a  small  house.  The  mission 
was  named  St.  Joseph,  although  it  has  been  more  frequently 
referred  to  as  St.  Mary.  It  was  located  within  the  present 
limits  of  Council  Bluffs,  Iowa.  .  .  .  The  Pottawattamie 
mission  at  Council  Bluffs  is  of  particular  interest  in  this  narra- 
tive, not  so  much  for  results  accomplished,  as  because  it  reveals 
at  this  early  date  the  full  character  of  Father  De  Smet  as  an 
Indian  missionary.  It  was  from  here  that  he  began  that  famous 
series  of  letters  which  have  made  his  name  well  known  through- 
out the  world. 

In  one  of  the  first  of  these  letters,  written  in  July,  1838,  Father 
De  Smet  said: 

"We  arrived  among  the  Pottawattamies  on  the  afternoon  of 
May  31st.  Nearly  2,000  savages,  in  their  finest  rigs  and  care- 
fully painted  in  all  sorts  of  patterns,  were  awaiting  the  boat 
at  the  landing.  I  had  not  seen  so  imposing  a  sight  nor  such 
fine  looking  Indians  in  America;  the  lowas,  the  Sauks  and 
Otocs  arc  beggars  compared  to  these.  Father  Verreydt  and 
brother  Maxell i  went  at  onc(^  to  the  camj)  of  the  half  breed 
chief,  Mr.   Caldwell,   four  miles  from   the  river    (page   157.) 


THE  OLD  BLOCKHOUSE  55 

"The  chief  has  given  us  possession  of  three  cabins,  and  we 
have  changed  the  fort  which  Colonel  Kearney  has  given  us  into 
a  church.  On  the  day  of  Corpus  Christi  I  put  a  cross  on  the 
roof,  and  while  I  climbed  the  ladder  to  put  it  into  place,  and 
my  flag  floated  from  a  hole  in  my  breeches,  Father  Felix 
(Verreydt)  beheld  the  devil  clap  his  tail  between  his  legs  and 
take  flight  over  the  big  hills."     (Page  158.) 

In  a  letter  dated  at  the  "Nation  of  the  Pottawattamies,  July  20, 
1838,"  Father  De  Smet  said: 

"We  have  a  fine  little  chapel,  twenty-four  feet  square,  sur- 
mounted by  a  little  belfry ;  four  poor  little  cabins  beside,  made 
of  rough  logs;  they  are  fourteen  feet  each  way,  with  roofs  of 
rude  rafters,  which  protect  us  from  neither  rain  nor  hail,  and 
still  less  from  snow  of  winter."     (Page  168.) 

In  the  spring  of  1839  De  Smet  visited  the  Sioux  Indians  near  the 
mouth  of  the  Big  Sioux  river,  in  an  effort  to  preserve  peace  between 
them  and  the  Pottawattamies,  and,  on  the  steamboat  he  met  Mr. 
Nicollet.    His  account  of  the  meeting  is  summarized  as  follows : 

"On  the  29th  of  April  I  went  on  board  the  American  Com- 
pany's steamboat,  which  makes  every  year  the  voyage  from 
St.  Louis  to  the  Yellowstone  river.  ...  To  my  great  joy 
I  found  on  board  the  celebrated  Nicollet,  whom  I  had  had  the 
honor  of  knowing  for  a  long  time.  ...  At  present  he  is 
making  a  scientific  excursion  upon  the  upper  Missouri,  as  he 
did  last  year  to  the  sources  of  the  Mississippi  and  its  tribu- 
taries. .  .  .  He  made  me  a  present  of  several  instruments, 
thermometers,  barometers,  compass,  etc.,  to  take  observations 
during  the  summer,  to  aid  those  he  was  making  in  the  upper 
country.     (Pages  179-80.) 

On  pages  183  and  184  is  printed  a  letter  from  Father  De  Smet, 
under  date  "Pottawattamie  Nation,  St.  Joseph  (Mission),  July 
1838",  but  in  a  foot  note  the  authors  say  the  year  should  be  1839. 
The  following  extract  is  made  from  that  letter,  viz. : 

"Our  Superior  sent  us  from  St,  Louis,  goods  to  the  amount 
of  $500,  in  ornaments  for  the  church,  a  tabernacle,  a  bell,  and 
provisions  and  clothes  for  a  year.  I  had  been  for  a  long  time 
without  shoes,  and  from  Easter  we  were  destitute  of  supplies. 
All  of  the  Pottawattamie  nation  were  suffering  from  scarcity, 
having  only  acorns  and  a  few  wild  roots  for  their  whole  stock 
of  food.    At  last,  about  the  20th  of  April,  they  announced  to 


56  EARLY  DAYS   AT  COUNCIL   BLUFFS 

US  that  the  much-desired  boat  was  approaching.  Already  we 
saw  it  from  the  highest  of  our  hills.  I  procured,  without  delay, 
two  carts  to  go  for  our  baggage.  I  reached  there  in  time  to 
witness  a  very  sad  sight.  The  vessel  had  hit  a  sawyer,  was 
pierced,  and  rapidly  sinking  in  the  waves.  The  confusion  that 
reigned  in  the  boat  was  great,  but  happily  no  lives  were  lost. 
The  total  damage  was  valued  at  $40,000.  All  the  provisions 
forwarded  by  the  government  to  the  savages  were  on  board 
of  her.  Of  our  effects,  four  articles  were  saved;  a  plough,  a 
saw,  a  pair  of  boots  and  some  wine.  Providence  was  still  favor- 
able to  us.  With  the  help  of  the  plough,  we  were  enabled  to 
plant  a  large  field  of  corn ;  it  was  the  season  for  furrowing. 
We  used  the  saw  to  build  a  better  house  and  enlarge  our 
church,  already  too  small." 

A  thorough  search  of  official  reports  and  various  other  sources  has 
failed  to  discover  any  account,  other  than  the  above,  of  the  wrecking 
of  a  steamboat  at  or  near  the  site  indicated. 

Father  De  Smet's  service  at  this  mission  ceased  in  the  fall  of  1839, 
when  he  was  transferred  to  the  far  Northwest.  On  his  return  to  the 
eastern  country,  late  in  1840,  he  visited  the  old  place,  arriving  about 
November  24th.    Of  that  visit  he  says : 

' '  The  very  night  of  our  arrival  among  our  Fathers  at  Council 
Bluffs,  the  river  closed.  It  would  be  vain  for  me  to  attempt 
to  tell  what  I  felt  at  finding  myself  once  more  amidst  our 
brothers,  after  having  travelled  2,000  Flemish  leagues,  in  the 
midst  of  the  greatest  dangers  and  across  the  territories  of  the 
most  barbarous  nations.  I  had,  however,  the  grief  of  observing 
the  ravages  which  unprincipled  men,  liquor  sellers,  had  caused 
in  this  budding  mission ;  drunkenness,  with  the  invasion  of  the 
Sioux  on  the  other  hand,  had  finally  dispersed  my  poor  savages. 
While  awaiting  a  more  favorable  turn  of  events,  the  good 
Fathers  Verreydt  and  (Christian)  Hoeken  busy  themselves 
with  the  cares  of  their  holy  ministry  among  the  fifty  families 
that  have  had  the  courage  to  resist  these  two  enemies."  (Page 
258.) 

The  writer,  wishing  to  ascertain  if  possible  up  to  what  period  the 
mission  at  Council  Bluff's  was  maintained,  and,  findng  no  authentic 
evidence  in  that  respect,  addressed  a  letter  of  inquiry  to  the  St.  Louis 
University  regarding  the  abandonment  and  final  closing  of  the  St. 
Joseph  or  St.  Mary  Mission  among  the  Pottawattaraies,  to  which  reply 
was  received,  as  follows: 


THE  OLD  BLOCKHOUSE  57 

"Mo.  Prov.  S.  J.,  St.  Louis,  May  16,  1916. 
''Mr.  Chas.  H.  Babbitt, 

Washington,  D.  C. 
"Dear  Sir: 

"In  answer  to  your  inquiry  relative  to  the  Jesuit  Pottawat- 
tamie Mission  at  Council  Bluffs,  I  am  able  to  inform  you  that 
the  last  resident  missionary  departed  from  the  place  in  July 
or  Au^st,  1841.  The  last  entry  in  the  baptismal  register  of 
the  mission,  bears  date  July  17,  1841. 

I  am  very"  sincerely  yours, 

G.  J.  Garraghan,  S.  J." 

The  "Old  Fort"  or  "Mission  House",  with  other  buildings  used 
for  mission  purposes,  stood  upon  the  West  half  of  the  Southwest 
quarter  of  Section  30,  Township  75  North,  of  Range  43  West,  Fifth 
Principal  Meridian;  and,  upon  its  inclusion  in  the  application  for 
entry  of  the  townsite  of  Council  Bluffs,  that  tract  became  a  bone  of 
contention  between  Mrs.  S.  T.  Carey  and  the  Catholic  Church.  In 
the  record  of  evidence  relating  to  the  long-drawn-out  controversy 
that  ensued  (Case  No.  139,  Pottawattamie  file.  No.  40-L)  before  the 
Indian  Office  and  Land  Department,  is  an  affidavit  made  by  Stutely 
E.  Wicks,  wherein  he  alleged : 

"  ...  That,  about  the  year  1837  two  Catholic  priests, 
named  Veright  and  De  Smith,  took  possession  of  the  buildings 
and  a  small  field  adjacent  thereto  and  continued  to  occupy  the 
same  until  some  time  in  1842.     .     .     ." 

It  will  be  observed  that  Mr.  Wicks  was  mistaken,  both  as  to  the  date 
when  the  mission  was  established  and  when  it  was  abandoned. 

The  foregoing  sets  out  all  that  the  writer  has  been  able  to  discover, 
relating  to  the  "Old  Blockhouse  at  Council  Bluffs",  by  a  most 
thorough  search  of  governmental  records  and  examination  of  numer- 
ous other  sources  of  information ;  together  with  some  things,  true  and 
otherwise,  that  have  been  written  and  published,  as  well  as  the  memory 
pictures  of  the  establishment  retained  by  himself  and  others  still  living 
who  saw  it  at  an  early  day. 

It  would  appear,  from  the  record  evidence,  conclusive  and  con- 
vincing in  character,  that  all  that  ever  existed  of  the  "Old  Fort" 
was  the  simple  little  blockhouse,  twenty-four  feet  square,  erected  by 
Captain  D.  B.  Moore  in  1837.  That  the  "Old  Mission"  consisted  of 
that  building,  to  which  addition  was  made  by  the  missionaries  in 
1839 :  the  little  cabins  given  to  the  Fathers  bv  Chief  Billv  Caldwell  in 


58  EARLY  DAYS  AT  COUNCIL   BLUFFS 

1838,  and  the  house  erected  by  the  missionaries  at  the  same  time  that 
enlargement  of  the  church  was  made,  as  described  by  Father  De  Smet. 

The  illustration  which  accompanied  the  article  of  Mr.  Bloomer,  in 
Annals  of  Iowa,  later  used  in  Gue's  History  of  Iowa,  is  reproduced 
herein  to  the  end  that  the  reader  may  more  readily  understand  the 
comment  of  the  writer  in  relation  thereto. 

From  personal  observation,  almost  daily,  for  a  period  of  fully 
twenty  years,  the  writer  knows,  of  his  own  knowledge,  that  there  was 
never  a  road  up  the  nose  of  the  promontory  upon  which  the  old  build- 
ing stood.  He  believes  that  it  would  have  been  impossible  to  construct 
there  such  a  road  as  that  depicted  in  the  illustration  and  still  have 
left  on  the  little  plateau  at  the  top  sufficient  space  for  such  buildings 
as  there  portrayed.  Even  had  the  construction  of  such  roadway  been 
practicable,  there  would  have  been  no  necessity  for  so  doing,  because 
the  plateau  was  easily  accessible  from  both  east  and  west  by  gentle 
inclines  having  ample  space  for  roadways.  See  supposititious  picture 
of  the  old  blockhouse,  showing  topography  as  remembered  by  the 
writer. 

Captain  Moore's  command  consisted  of  only  sixty-six  persons;  it 
arrived  at  the  Pottawattamie  country  August  4,  and  departed  thence 
November  1,  1837.  Such  force  could  not,  within  such  period,  have 
constructed  such  works  as  Mr.  Simons'  memory  or  imagination  de- 
picted when  he  made  the  drawing  that  was  used  in  preparing  the 
illustration. 

It  would  be  folly  to  discuss  or  attempt  to  explain  the  differences 
between  the  several  memory  pictures  of  the  "Old  Fort"  as  set  out 
by  persons  who  have  been  heard,  and  the  facts  as  disclosed  by  official 
records  and  other  evidence.  It  is  deemed  sufficient  to  say  that, 
memory,  especially  that  extending  back  to  childhood  days,  is  fre- 
quently at  fault — "distance  lends  enchantment  to  the  view" — and  one 
relying  merely  upon  memory  will  find,  upon  investigation,  that  she 
is  frequently  an  unfaithful  painter  who  magnifies,  softens  and  gilds 
the  images  which  she  presents,  misleading  the  individual  as  to  facts 
and  appearances  with  which  one  may  for  years  have  believed  oneself 
thoroughly  fjimiliar.     "Things  arc  not  what  they  seem." 


THE  OLD  BLOCKHOUSE 


59 


ii4  s^'iil 

Y/''Ml' 


60  EARLY  DAYS   AT  COUNCIL   BLUFFS 


THE  OLD  BLOCKHOUSE. 

(Supposititious  Picture) 

By  this  picture  attempt  is  made  to  depict  the  old  blockhouse  as  it 
probably  appeared  when  completed  by  Captain  D.  B.  Moore  in  1837, 
together  with  the  blunt  nose  of  bluff  whereon  it  stood.  No  portholes 
are  shown  because  there  was  no  reason  why  any  should  have  been 
originally  provided.  United  States  troops  did  not  ordinarily  employ 
cannon  in  the  control  of  the  Indians  at  that  early  day,  and  it  is  not 
probable  that  the  same  were  furnished  the  Pottawattamies  for  their 
protection.  The  building  was  a  simple  hewn-log  structure,  twenty- 
four  feet  square,  without  openings  on  the  north  and  west  sides  except 
loopholes  for  small-arms  fire.  After  it  came  into  the  possession  of 
the  Jesuit  missionaries  small  windows  were  cut  in  those  sides  which 
were  afterward  taken  by  some  to  have  been  portholes  for  cannon  fire. 
The  folly  of  such  belief  is  apparent  upon  consideration  of  the  size  and 
character  of  the  building,  and  what  would  probably  have  happened 
to  the  occupants  had  a  large  gun  been  fired  from  the  inside.  No 
frontier  blockhouse,  even  at  the  largest  of  the  government  military 
posts,  appears  to  have  been  constructed  with  a  view  to  firing  cannon 
from  within.  When  cannon  were  provided  for  such  posts  they  were 
usually  mounted  outside  the  buildings  in  bastions  especially  designed 
for  the  purpose. 


FORT  CROGHAN. 

May  31,  1842,  Captain  John  H.  K.  Burgwin,  under  orders  from  the 
War  Department  established  a  military  cantonment,  for  the  protection 
of  the  Pottawattamie  Indians  against  threatened  attack  by  the  Sioux, 
the  garrison  consisting  of  one  company  of  dragoons. 

July  1,  1842,  the  Captain  reported  to  the  Adjutant  General  of  the 
Army,  from  "Camp  Fenwick,  on  the  Missouri  river  near  Council 
Bluffs",  that  he  had  established  encampment  as  above  set  forth. 

October  7,  1842,  in  connection  with  report  as  to  condition  of  his 
command  and  post.  Captain  Burgwin  suggested  the  substitution  of 
the  name  ' '  Fort  Croghan ' '  for  the  station  in  lieu  of  ' '  Camp  Fenwick. ' ' 

November  8,  1842,  Brigadier  General  R.  Jones,  Adjutant  General, 
approved  the  suggestion  of  Captain  Burgwin,  and  thereafter  the 
cantonment  was  known  as  "Fort  Croghan",  being  so  indicated  on  a 
map  published  by  the  War  Department  in  1843' in  connection  with  the 
report  of  the  explorations  made  by  J.  N.  Nicollet  and  Lieutenant  John 
C.  Fremont,  1838-9. 

When  it  became  definitely  determined,  against  earnest  protest  by 
Captain  Burgwin,  that  the  post  should  be  maintained  during  the 
ensuing  winter,  due  preparation  was  made  by  the  erection  of  log 
quarters  for  the  officers  and  men  and  suitable  protection  for  the 
animals;  the  tents  theretofore  used  were  stored,  and  the  cantonment 
assumed  a  more  permanent  appearance. 

April  17,  1843,  from  "Fort  Croghan,  I.  T."  Captain  Burgwin 
reported  the  greatest  rise  in  the  Missouri  river  known  within  seven- 
teen years;  that  his  camp  was  threatened  by  the  flood  and  he  had 
prepared  for  removal  "to  the  Bluffs,  which  are  about  six  miles  from 
me". 

August  15,  1843,  still  using  the  "Fort  Croghan"  heading,  the 
Captain  reported  the  original  camp  yet  surrounded  by  water ;  that  it 
would  probably  not  be  fit  for  future  use ;  that  troops  were  no  longer 
needed  in  the  locality,  and  requested  relief  from  further  duty  there. 
His  request  was  granted  and  the  command  returned  to  Fort  Leaven- 
worth, from  which  place  the  Captain  submitted  report,  dated  October 
13,  1843,  saying  that  his  command  had  just  arrived  and  that  Fort 
Croghan  was  abandoned  on  the  6th  of  that  month. 

The  foregoing  brief  sketch  of  "Fort  Croghan"  is  compiled  from 


62  EARLY  DAYS   AT  COUNCIL   BLUFFS 

unpublished  orders,  reports  and  letters  in  the  files  of  the  office  of  the 
Adjutant  General,  War  Department,  Washington.  The  use  of  the 
date  line  ''Fort  Croghan,  I.  T."  by  Captain  Burgwin  clearly  fixes 
the  site  of  the  cantonment  on  the  east  (left)  bank  of  the  Missouri 
river.  In  his  "American  Fur  Trade  of  the  Far  West"  (Vol.  3,  page 
950),  General  Hiram  Martin  Chittenden  says  that:  "Fort  Croghan 
stood  a  little  above  the  Union  Pacific  bridge  in  Omaha;"  but  he  is 
mistaken,  as  Captain  Burgwin's  report  dated  April  17,  1843,  clearly 
demonstrates. 

The  fact  that  Captain  Burgwin  continued  to  use  the  headline  ' '  Fort 
Croghan"  after  the  removal  of  the  command  to  the  highlands,  in- 
dicates that  the  name  applied  to  the  territory  under  his  jurisdiction 
rather  than  to  the  cantonment  itself  or  to  its  precise  site. 

The  precise  plot  of  ground  upon  which  the  original  location  of 
"Camp  Fenwick"  and  "Fort  Croghan"  was  made,  or  whether  the 
log  structures  of  1843  were  erected  upon  that  identical  spot,  is  not 
known  and  may  never  be  positively  determined ;  nor  is  there  attainable 
evidence  to  show  conclusively  to  what  place  Captain  Burgwin  re- 
ferred when  he  reported: 

"I  commenced  yesterday  morning  moving  the  public  prop- 
erty to  the  Bluffs  which  are  about  six  miles  from  me" — 

the  point  to  which  the  troops  removed  and  took  position  that  was 
maintained  during  the  remainder  of  their  stay  in  the  vicinity.  No 
records  exist  containing  specific  descriptions  of  these  sites  or  either 
of  them. 

Probably  the  most  circumstantial  reference  to  and  description  of 
the  two  points  occupied  by  Captain  Burgwin  as  "Fort  Croghan"  here- 
tofore published,  is  contained  in  an  article  that  appeared  in  the 
Annals  of  Iowa  (3d  Series,  Volume  3,  page  471),  which  is  here  re- 
produced in  full,  viz. : 

"P^'oRT  Croghan. — In  April,  1842,  while  the  Pottawattamie 
Indians  were  located  in  what  is  now  the  eastern  part  of  Potta- 
wattamie County,  it  was  thought  necessary  to  send  up  the 
Missouri  river  a  detachment  of  troops  for  their  protection. 
Captain  John  II.  K.  Burj^'win  therefore  arrived  on  a  steamer 
from  Fort  Leavenwortii,  with  a  company  of  United  States 
troops,  and  established  a  post  on  the  edge  of  the  timber  at 
Section  10,  near  the  present  southwest  corner  of  the  city  of 
Council   Bluffs.     Tliis  he  first  named   'Camp   Fenwick',   but 


FORT  CROGHAN  63 

afterwards  changed  it  to  'Fort  Croghan'.  There  has  been 
some  dispute  about  the  location,  but  'there  is  certain  evidence', 
says  Hon.  D.  C.  Bloomer,  'that  it  stood  as  mentioned'.  The 
troops  staid  there  during  the  remainder  of  1842,  and  until  the 
spring  of  1843,  when  a  great  flood  covered  the  Missouri 
Bottoms  compelling  the  command  to  remove  to  a  temporary 
location  on  the  western  side  of  Little  Mosquito  Creek,  on  the 
high  grounds  later  occupied  by  Mr.  J.  P.  Casady  for  farming 
purposes.  Here  they  remained  until  the  water,  which  covered 
the  valley,  subsided,  when  they  returned  to  the  fort.  In  Sep- 
tember, following,  the  presence  of  the  troops  being  no  longer 
necessary  for  the  protection  of  the  Indians,  the  company,  still 
under  the  command  of  Capt.  Burgwin,  returned  to  Ft.  Leaven- 
worth, and  'Fort  Croghan'  was  abandoned,  never  again  to 
be  occupied.  For  the  above  information  we  are  indebted  to 
Hon.  D.  C.  Bloomer,  of  Council  Bluffs." 

As  stated  elsewhere  in  this  work  the  writer  resided  at  Council 
Bluffs  from  1853  to  1874,  and  was  very  familiar  with  the  surrounding 
country,  having  gunned  for  ducks,  prairie  chickens,  turkeys  and 
other  game,  pretty  much  all  "round  about  there",  and,  upon  reading 
the  foregoing  article,  a  few  months  ago,  he  was  surprised  by  some  of 
the  statements  therein  contained ;  doubted  that  the  original  encamp- 
ment of  Captain  Burgwin  was  located  upon  "Section  10"  and  knew 
that  J.  P.  Casady 's  farm  was  not  near  the  Little  Mosquito  creek,  but 
on  Pony  creek,  some  three  miles  south  and  one  mile  east  of  the  mouth 
of  the  Little  Mosquito.  So,  contemplating  the  writing  of  this  paper, 
he  began  investigating. 

Mr.  Edgar  R.  Harlan,  Curator  of  the  Historical  Department  of 
Iowa,  at  Des  Moines,  under  the  direction  of  whom  Annals  of  Iowa  is 
now  published,  has  furnished  copies  of  letters  sent  to  Hon.  Charles 
Aldrich,  founder  of  the  Historical  Department  of  Iowa,  by  Mr. 
Bloomer,  including  that  "certain  evidence"  referred  to  in  the  article 
quoted  above.  There  are  two  letters  from  Mr.  Bloomer  dated,  re- 
spectively, November  24  and  25,  1896,  the  latter  being  in  correction 
of  a  clerical  error  in  and  elaborative  of  the  former.  Both  are  here 
quoted  to  the  end  that  the  entire  matter  may  be  fairly  placed  before 

it'll  P    T*PflHPT** 

"Council  Bluffs,   Iowa,   Nov.   24,   1896. 
"Hon.  Charles  Aldrich, 

Des  Moines,  Iowa. 
"Dear  Sir: 

"I  return  the  correspondence  relative  to  Fort  Croghan  and 
its  occupancy  by  U.  S.  troops  in  1842-3. 


64  EARLY  DAYS  AT  COUNCIL   BLUFFS 

"The  question  as  to  the  actual  location  of  Camp  Fenwick, 
changed  to  Fort  Croghan,  has  elicited  a  good  deal  of  contro- 
versy among  the  people  in  this  section.  I  have  spent  a  good  deal 
of  time  and  made  some  journeys  in  order  to  settle  it  in  my  own 
mind.  Some  claim  that  it  was  on  the  west  side  of  the  river, 
up  in  the  \'icinity  of  Old  Fort  Atkinson,  later  known  as  Fort 
Calhoun.  Others  claim  that  it  was  on  the  east  side  of  the 
river,  on  the  wide  bottom,  a  few  miles  south  of  the  present 
site  of  the  modern  Council  Bluffs.  My  great  object  was  to  find 
some  one  who  then  resided  here,  and  who  could  from  personal 
recollections  settle  the  question.  And  such  a  person  I  have  at 
last  found  in  Mr.  Richard  S.  Hardin,  an  old  gentleman,  son  of 
Indian  agent  Hardin,  who  came  here  with  the  Pottawattamie 
Indians  in  1838,  and  who  now  resides  at  Nodaway  Station  in 
Missouri.  In  a  letter  written  to  me  on  the  21st  of  November, 
1896,  he  says: 

' '  '  The  old  Fort  you  wish  to  know  about  was  built  in  '42,  and 
vacated  in  the  spring  of  '43,  on  account  of  high  water.  It  was 
northwest  of  my  old  farm  3^  of  a  mile,  in  the  edge  of  the 
timber  on  the  bottom.  When  they  left  it  they  stuck  their  tents 
in  the  hollow  near  where  Judge  Casady  's  house  stands.  If  there 
is  anything  I  can  give  you  light  on,  let  me  know.  I  think  I 
will  be  in  Council  Bluffs  in  the  spring,  and  if  you  will  get  a 
reporter,  I  will  answer  any  questions  you  may  wish  to  ask,  as 
I  think  I  am  the  only  man  living  now  that  can'. 

"This  statement  is  reliable  and  reallj^  settles  the  question. 
It  corresponds  perfectly  with  the  letter  of  Capt.  Burgwin,  '43, 
page  6,  in  which  he  stated  that  his  cantonment  'was  flooded 
and  that  he  had  commenced  removing  the  public  property  to 
the  Bluffs,  which  are  about  six  miles  from  me'.  True,  his  first 
letter  was  written  from  'Camp  Fenwick  near  Council  Bluffs' 
evidently  referring  to  the  Council  Bluffs  of  the  olden  time, 
but  that  point  was  less  than  twenty  miles  distant,  and  was  the 
name  then  applied  to  all  this  immediate  region.  I  may  add  that 
A.  I).  Jones,  now  of  Omaha,  who  in  early  days  resided  in 
Council  Bluffs  and  made  the  first  survey  of  the  town  in  1852, 
insists  that  'Camp  Fenwick — Fort  Croghan'  was  on  the  east 
side  of  the  river  not  far  from  the  southwest  corner  of  the 
present  corporate  limits  of  the  city  of  Council  Bluffs.  It  was 
very  near,  almost  the  middle  of,  the  then  home  of  the  Potta- 
wattamies — the  very  Indians  Captain  Burgwin  was  sent  here 
to  protect,  although  as  it  turned  out,  no  protection  was  required. 

"This  Fort  Croghan  had  no  connection  in  any  way  with  the 
military  buildings,  the  'Old  Block  House  in  Council  Bluff's'  at 
or  near  the  Bryant  Springs.  That  had  been  built  by  U.  S. 
troops  in  1839.  They  seem  to  have  left  and  Capt.  Burgwin's 
Company  was  probably  sent  to  take  their  place.    Instead,  how- 


FORT  CROGHAN  65 

ever,  of  going  to  the  old  site,  they  camped  on  the  bottom  near 
the  timber,  three  or  four  miles  distant  in  a  southwesterly  direc- 
tion from  it.  Possibly,  when  I  have  the  interview  with  Mr. 
Hardin,  this  point  will  also  be  explained  more  fully. 

Very  truly, 

T>.  C.  Bloomer." 


"Council  Bluffs,  Nov.  25,  1896. 
"Mr.  Charles  Aldrich. 

' '  Dear  Sir :  Referring  to  my  letter  of  yesterday  in  relation 
to  the  location  of  Camp  Fenwick — Fort  Croghan,  I  would  state 
that  I  have  just  received  a  letter  from  Mr.  Hardin  in  which 
he  states  that  the  fort  instead  of  being  3  and  14  miles  northwest 
from  his  old  farm,  that  it  was  only  %  of  a  mile  from  it.  I 
suspected  that  this  was  the  fact,  and  this  correction  enables  us 
to  exactly  locate  the  spot.  Mr.  Hardin's  old  farm  was  in  the 
Ei/s  of  the  SE14  of  Section  15-74-44,  and  %  of  a  mile  from  it 
takes  us  to  the  £1/2  of  Section  10  in  the  same  township  and 
range,  and  through  about  the  center  of  this  section  the  line  of 
timber  passed.  That  was  the  identical  spot  where  the  old  fort 
stood.  And  now  I  remember  that  when  I  first  came  to  the 
county  41  years  ago,  there  was  right  there  the  remains  of 
buildings  of  some  kind,  erected  in  former  years.  It  turns  out 
now  that  they  had  been  erected  by  the  XJ.  S.  troops  under 
Capt.  Burgwin  in  the  first  instance,  and  perhaps  reconstructed 
by  the  Mormons. 

Yours  very  truly, 

D.  C.  Bloomer. 

"P.  S. — I  enclose  plat  of  Tp.  74-44,  which  shows  the  loca- 
tion." 

In  that  portion  of  this  work  relating  to  the  Pottawattamie  Indians 
it  is  clearly  shown  that  they  arrived  at  or  near  the  present  site  of 
the  city  of  Council  Bluffs  July  28,  1837 ;  that  the  blockhouse  was  built 
at  that  time;  that  Davis  Hardin  (father  of  R,  S.  Hardin)  was  not 
agent  for  those  Indians;  that  the  farm  entered  by  R.  S.  Hardin  in 
1854, — undoubtedly  the  place  mentioned  by  him  as  *  *  my  old  farm ' ', — 
consisted  of  Lot  1  (W1/2SW1/4)  Sec.  14,  and  E1/2SE14  Sec.  15,  in  the 
township  indicated  by  Mr.  Bloomer.  On  this  tract  the  plat  of  the 
United  States  survey  made  in  1852  shows  three  houses,  of  which  two 
are  on  the  lot  4.  It  was  in  one  of  the  latter,  according  to  the  writer's 
recollection,  wherein  Mr.  Hardin  resided,  about  one  mile  from  the  old 
steamboat  landing  as  indicated  by  the  plat  of  survey. 


66  EARLY  DAYS   AT  COUNCIL   BLUFFS 

On  the  SI/2NE14  Sec.  15  of  said  township  appears  the  village  of 
''Council  Point",  immediately  north  of  and  contiguous  to  the  western 
part  of  the  Hardin  farm,  and  almost  exactly  three-quarters  of  a  mile 
from  R.  S.  Hardin's  dwelling.  In  the  belief  of  the  writer  the  site  of 
Council  Point,  Camp  Fenwick  or  Fort  Croghan,  was  identical.  The 
place  was  probably  renamed  because  of  the  fact  that  it  was  there  that 
the  Pottawattamie  Indians  of  the  Iowa  region  met  the  Commissioners 
of  the  United  States  June  5,  1846,  and  signed  the  treaty  ceding  their 
lands,  which  had  actually  been  negotiated  at  Washington  between 
the  head  men  of  the  nation  and  government  officials  at  a  time  previous. 
The  buildings  erected  by  Captain  Burgwin  's  command  in  1842  afforded 
facilities  for  such  transaction  not  existing  at  any  other  place  near  by. 

It  is  impossible  to  secure  conclusive  evidence  to  support  these  as- 
sumptions; but  they  do  no  violence  to  Mr.  Hardin's  testimony  as 
furnished  by  Mr.  Bloomer.  No  point  in  section  ten,  Mr.  Bloomer's 
location  of  Camp  Fenwick,  could  have  been  reached  by  traveling  only 
three-quarters  of  a  mile  northwest  from  Mr.  Hardin's  farm  house. 
The  plat  of  government  survey  shows  only  one  house  on  Section  10, 
and  none  other  is  mentioned  in  the  field  notes  of  the  survey  as  being 
on  said  section. 

When  the  Mormons  reached  that  locality,  June,  1846,  they  found 
the  little  village  of  Council  Point  already  named,  and  it  was  there 
that  their  High  Council  was  organized  Julj^  21,  by  which  was  accepted 
the  name  ' '  Miller 's  Hollow ' '  that  had  attached  to  the  settlement  made 
by  the  Saints  on  the  site  of  the  present  city  of  Council  Bluffs. 

Mr.  A.  D.  Jones,  who  resided  at  Council  Bluffs  for  some  time  after 
the  advent  of  the  writer  in  that  vicinity  and  was  well  known  to  him, 
has  been  quoted  as  supporting  the  claim  that  Fort  Croghan  was  near 
the  original  site  mentioned  in  the  article  quoted  from  Annals  of  Iowa ; 
it  being  said  that  he  made  a  survey  of  the  city  in  1852,  and  is  therefore 
an  authority.  If  he  made  survey  of  any  part  of  the  city  his  work 
was  private  and  not  public  in  character.  In  a  letter  dated  May  9,  1916, 
the  Council  Bluffs  City  Engineer  says: 

"There  is  no  evidence  in  my  office  to  indicate  that  a  survey 
of  the  town  was  made  by  A.  D.  Jones  prior  to  the  survey  made 
by  Tostcvin".     (1854.) 

Judgo  (J.  P.)  Casady  never  owned,  resided  upon  or  cultivated  any 
farm  near  the  site  mentioned  in  the  quoted  article  other  than  that 


FORT  CROGHAN  67 

embracing  the  SEi^SEii  Sec.  9;  SWI/4SW14,  E1/2SW14  Sec.  10; 
NEi^NWii,  WVsNWi^  Sec.  15,  and  EVgNEi^  Sec.  16,  T.  74  N., 
R.  43  W.  Six  miles  due  east  and  across  Mosquito  creek  from  the  Ft. 
Croghan  site  mentioned  in  the  quoted  article,  and  about  two  miles 
back  of  the  first  bluffs  skirting  the  Missouri  river  bottom.  In  1843 
that  would  have  been  an  inaccessible  and  undesirable  site  for  a  military- 
encampment  dependent  upon  steamboat  transportation  for  its  supplies. 
The  boat  landing  was  more  than  five  miles,  air  line,  from  such  site, 
and  no  practicable  route  between  the  points  could  have  been  less  than 
eight  miles.  Mr.  Hardin  could  not  have  intended  to  designate  the 
Casady  farm  as  the  site  where  the  troops  "stuck  their  tents". 

Judge  Casady  owned  and  resided  for  some  years  in  a  house  in 
Council  Bluffs,  near  the  mouth  of  what  was  known  in  early  days  as 
"Duck  Hollow",  only  a  short  distance  from  the  "Old  Block  House", 
It  was  one  of  the  most  prominent  houses  of  that  time  in  the  city.  Just 
to  the  east  of  it,  and  immediately  north  from  the  old  blockhouse,  was 
a  broad,  almost  level  plateau,  an  ideal  spot  for  a  military  camp  such 
as  required  by  Captain  Burgwin's  command,  and,  notwithstanding 
Mr.  Bloomer's  positive  assertion  that  the  blockhouse  and  Fort  Croghan 
had  "no  connection  in  any  way",  it  very  convincingly  appears  from 
unpublished  letters  of  the  Pottawattamie  sub-agent,  written  in  1842 
and  1843,  that  the  dragoons  at  that  time  used  the  blockhouse  for 
storage  purposes.  (See  Mr.  Elliott's  letter  of  June  1,  1843,  quoted 
in  connection  with  "Pottawattamie  Indians"  and  "Old  Blockhouse", 
elsewhere  in  this  work.) 

It  is  the  belief  of  the  writer  that  Captain  Burgwin  and  his  men, 
when  forced  to  retire  from  the  bottom,  made  their  encampment  upon 
the  plateau  described  in  the  preceding  paragraph,  and  that  it  was  the 
site  referred  to  in  the  language  quoted  in  Mr.  Bloomer's  letter  to  Mr. 
Aldrich : 

"When  they  left  it  they  stuck  their  tents  in  the  hollow  near 
where  Judge  Casady 's  house  stands". 

This  opinion  is  corroborated  by  an  unpublished  letter  from  Sub- Agent 
Elliott,  dated  June  1,  1843,  quoted  in  the  article  herein  relating  to 
"The  Old  Blockhouse".  True,  this  site  was  about  five  miles  from 
the  boat  landing,  but  it  was  connected  therewith  by  the  best  and 
probably  only  real  road  in  the  vicinity  at  the  time,  and  was  at  the 
site  of  the  Caldwell  village,  then  existing,  and  of  the  De  Smet  mission 


68  EARLY  DAYS  AT  COUNCIL  BLUFFS 

abandoned  about  two  years  before.  Captain  Burgwin  who  had  been 
acting  ad  interim  Sub-Agent  for  the  Pottawattamies,  appears  to  have 
turned  over  the  agency  effects  to  Sub-Agent  Elliott  at  that  point 
June  1,  1843. 

Captain  Burgwin  evidently  overestimated  the  distance  between  Fort 
Croghan  and  the  bluffs,  as  there  is  no  point  in  the  Missouri  river 
bottom,  above  the  boat  landing  as  indicated  by  government  survey,  in 
that  vicinity  where  the  air-line  distance  between  river  and  bluffs  is 
six  miles.  The  early  settlers  made  the  same  error,  calling  it  six  miles 
from  Kanesville  to  the  boat  landing,  whereas  it  is  little  more  than  four 
miles. 

There  is  no  intention  to  impugn  Mr.  Bloomer's  good  faith,  nor  to 
question  his  veracity,  bj^  what  has  been  said  here ;  but  simply  to  differ 
from  some  of  his  inferences,  assumptions  and  conclusions,  and  to  in- 
dicate the  reasons  for  such  differences.  The  writer  knew  Mr.  Bloomer 
well  and  knows  him  to  have  been  a  conscientious  man,  but  doubts  the 
correctness  of  his  findings  upon  the  evidence  considered  by  him,  taken 
in  connection  with  his  knowledge  of  the  locality  and  the  subjects  of 
which  he  was  writing. 

On  whatever  particular  sites  the  "Camp  Fenwick"  and  "Fort 
Croghan"  of  Captain  Burgwin  may  have  stood,  in  the  vicinity  of 
Council  Bluffs,  there  is  ample  evidence  that  neither  was  in  the  imme- 
diate vicinity  of  the  Council  Bluff  of  Lewis  and  Clark,  nor  in  any 
manner  connected  with  Fort  Atkinson  which  was  located  near  the 
latter.  It  has  been  said  that  there  was  once  a  "Fort  Croghan"  on 
or  near  the  site  of  the  latter  place ;  but  there  appears  to  be  no  record 
evidence  to  sustain  such  allegation.  Mr.  A.  D.  Jones,  at  the  time 
Secretary  of  the  Old  Settlers'  Association  of  Omaha,  addressed  a 
letter  of  inquiry  to  Father  De  Smet,  containing  several  interrogations, 
to  which  the  eminent  missionary,  writing  from  "St.  Louis  University, 
December  26,  1867",  made  separate  replies,  in  part  as  follows: 

"To  the  best  of  my  knowledge,  and  assisted  by  Captain 
Joseph  La  Barge,  the  old  explorer  of  the  Missouri  river,  I  will 
here  answer  your  various  questions: 

"First,  'Where  was  old  Fort  Calhoun  located?' 

"Fort  Calhoun  was  never  located;  it  took  the  name  of  Fort 
Atkinson,  which  wjus  built  on  the  very  spot  where  the  council 
was  h(!ld  by  L(;wis  and  ('lark,  and  was  the  higliest  and  first 
military  post  above  the  mouth  of  the  Nebraska  (Platte)  river. 

"Second,  'Where  was  old  Fort  Croghan?' 


FORT  CROGIIAN  69 

"After  the  evacuation  of  Fort  Atkinson  or  Calhoun,  either 
in  1827  or  1828,  or  thereabouts,  the  troops  came  down  and 
made  winter  quarters  on  Cow  Island — Captain  La  Barge  states 
it  was  called  Camp  Croghan.  The  next  spring  the  flood  dis- 
turbed the  soldiers  and  they  came  down  and  established  Fort 
Leavenworth.  Colonel  Leavenworth  was  commandant  at  the 
breaking  up  of  Fort  Atkinson.  (See  pages  1533-34-35,  Chit- 
tenden and  Richardson's  Life,  Letters  and  Travels  of  Father 
De  Smet,  Volume  4,  where  the  letter  above  quoted  is  credited 
to  Nebraska  Historical  Society's  Report.) 

"Third,  'There  is  an  earthen  remain  of  fortifications  on  the 
east  bank  of  Omaha ;  do  you  know  who  built  it  ? ' 

"The  remains  alluded  to  must  be  the  site  of  the  old  trading 
post  of  Mr.  Heart.  When  it  was  in  existence  the  Missouri  river 
ran  up  to  the  trading  post.  In  1832  the  river  left  it,  and  since 
that  time  it  goes  by  the  name  of  'Heart's  Cut-Off',  leaving  a 
large  lake  above  Council  Bluffs  city." 

Assuming  this  last  information  to  be  correct,  a  starting  point  is 
established  from  which,  with  other  existing  evidence,  a  fairly  good 
inference  may  be  derived  respecting  the  location  to  w^hich  Captain 
Burgwin  removed  the  government  property  and  his  command  upon 
the  occasion  of  the  flood  in  the  spring  of  1843. 

The  log  of  the  steamboat  "Omega",  on  a  voyage  made  in  1843,  con- 
tains the  following  entries : 

' '  May  9,  Tuesday.    Passed  Trudeau  Island,  Five  Barrels  Island, 
la   Calumet,   L'Oeil   de  fer.     .     .     .     Went  on  to  L 'Issue, 
where  I  put  off  freight  for  the  sutler  and  for  Captain  Burg- 
win.   Set  out  at  7  P.  M.  and  camped  above  the  bad  sandbar, 
near  the  marsh  at  Hart's  cut-off  at  9  P.  M. 
"May  10,  Wednesday.    We  progressed  finely  as  far  as  Hart's 
Bluffs  (cotes  a  Hart),  where  at  7  A.  M.,  we  were  summoned 
by  an  officer  and  four  dragoons  to  land.    I  received  a  polite 
note  from  Captain  Burgwin  informing  me  that  it  was  his 
duty  to  make  an  inspection  of  the  boat.     We  put  ourselves 
to  work  immediately^  while  Mr.  Audubon  goes  to  call  upon 
the  Captain.    They  return  in  about  two  hours.     .     .     ." 
(See  Chittenden's  American  Fur  Trade  of  the  Far  West, 
Vol.  3,  page  988;    also  Chittenden's  History  of  Early  Navi- 
gation on  the  Missouri  river.  Life  and  Adventures  of  Joseph 
La  Barge,  Vol.  1,  pages  143-144.) 

The  following  extract  is  from  the  work  last  mentioned,  and  is  a  part 
of  a  very  circumstantial  account  of  the  inspection  of  the  boat,  viz. : 


70  EARLY  DAYS  AT  COUNCIL   BLUFFS 

*  *  On  the  occasion  of  the  voyage  of  1843  the  agent  at  Bellevue 
happened  to  be  absent  from  his  station  when  the  boat  arrived. 
Elated  at  this  unexpected  good  fortune,  Captain  Sire  lost  no 
time  in  putting  off  the  freight  destined  for  this  point  and  in 
getting  on  his  way.  He  pursued  his  voyage  until  nine  o'clock 
that  evening,  and  doubtless  felicitated  himself  that  he  was  out 
of  danger.  But  it  appears  that  the  agent  had  delegated  the 
function  of  inspector  during  his  absence  to  the  commander  of 
the  United  States  troops  in  the  vicinity.  The  boat  left  her 
mooring  at  daylight  next  morning,  but  had  scarcely  gotten 
under  way  when  a  couple  of  rifle  shots  were  fired  across  her 
bow.  She  brought  to  at  once  and  made  for  the  shore.  There 
Captain  Sire  found  a  lieutenant  in  charge  of  a  few  dragoons, 
who  had  come  from  his  camp  four  miles  distant.  The  young 
officer  came  on  board  and  presented  to  Captain  Sire  a  polite 
note  from  Captain  Burgwin,  commander  of  the  camp,  stating 
that  his  orders  required  him  to  inspect  the  boat  before  letting 
her  proceed. 

' '  This  was  like  a  dash  of  cold  water  to  the  buoyant  spirits  of 
Captain  Sire,  and  none  the  less  so  to  Audubon,  to  whom,  as  well 
as  the  company,  the  loss  of  the  liquid  portion  of  the  cargo 
would  have  been  irreparable.  The  naturalist  had  a  permit 
from  the  government  to  carry  with  him  a  quantity  of  liquor 
for  the  use  of  himself  and  party,  and  upon  showing  his  cre- 
dentials to  the  young  officer  he  was,  to  use  his  own  words,  'im- 
mediately settled  comfortably '.  But  in  the  moment  of  his  good 
fortune  he  did  not  forget  his  companions  who  were  not  yet 
'settled  comfortably'.  He  understood  that  time  was  required 
to  prepare  for  the  approaching  function,  and  he  could  at  least 
help  to  secure  this  time  by  delaying  inspection  as  long  as 
possible.  He  accordingly  expressed  a  desire  to  visit  the  camp, 
and  the  lieutenant  detailed  a  dragoon  to  accompany  him.  The 
great  naturalist  rode  /owr  miles  to  call  upon  an  obscure  army 
officer  whom  he  knew  he  could  see  in  a  short  time  by  waiting 
at  the  boat.     .     .    . " 

The  Audubon  referred  to  in  the  foregoing  excerpts  was  the  well- 
known  and  justly  celebrated  naturalist  John  James  Audubon,  and 
his  own  story  of  this  occurrence,  more  interesting  for  the  evidence  and 
information  it  contains  than  because  of  the  importance  of  the  trans- 
action above  mentioned,  is  as  follows : 

"May  9,  Tuesday.  Another  fine  day.  After  running  until 
eleven  o'clock  we  stopped  to  cut  wood.  .  .  .  This  afternoon 
we  reached  B<dk>vue  where  resides  the  brother  of  Mr.  Sarpy 
of  St.  Louis,  as  well  as  the  Indian  Agent,  or  as  he  might  be 
more  appropriately  called,  the  Custom  House  officer.  Neither 
were  at  home,  both  away  on  the  Platte  river,  about  300  miles 


FORT  CROGHAN  71 

off.  .  .  .  We  landed  some  cargo  for  the  establishment. 
.  .  .  The  store  is  no  great  affair,  and  yet  I  am  told  that  they 
drive  a  good  trade  with  the  Indians  on  the  Platte  river,  and 
others  on  this  side  of  the  Missouri.  We  unloaded  some  freight 
and  pushed  off.  .  .  .  We  soon  reached  the  post  of  Fort 
Croghan,  so  called  after  my  old  friend  of  that  name  with  whom 
I  hunted  Raccoons  on  his  father's  plantation  in  Kentucky  some 
thirty-eight  years  ago,  and  whose  father  and  mine  were  well 
acquainted,  and  fought  together  in  conjunction  with  Washing- 
ton and  Lafayette  during  the  Revolutionary  War,  against 
'Merrie  England'.  Here  we  found  only  a  few  soldiers,  dra- 
goons; their  camp  and  officers  having  been  forced  to  move 
across  the  prairie  to  the  bluffs,  five  miles.  After  we  had  put 
out  some  freight  for  the  sutler,  we  proceeded  on  until  we 
stopped  for  the  night  a  few  miles  above,  on  the  same  side  of 
the  river.  The  soldiers  assured  us  that  their  parade  ground  and 
so-called  barracks,  had  been  four  feet  under  water,  and  we 
saw  fair  and  sufficient  evidence  of  this.  .  .  .  We  landed 
for  the  night  under  trees  covered  by  muddy  deposits  from  the 
great  overflow  of  this  season.  I  slept  soundly,  and  have  this 
morning.  May  10,  written  this. 

''May  10,  Wednesday.  The  morning  was  fine,  and  we  were 
under  way  at  daylight,  but  a  party  of  dragoons,  headed  by  a 
lieutenant,  had  left  the  camp  four  miles  distcmt  from  our 
anchorage  at  the  same  time,  and  reached  the  shore  before  we 
proceeded  far;  they  fired  a  couple  of  shots  ahead  of  us,  and 
we  brought  to  at  once.  The  young  officer  came  on  board,  and 
presented  a  letter  from  his  commander.  Captain  Burgwin,  from 
which  we  found  that  we  had  to  have  our  cargo  examined.  Our 
captain  was  glad  of  it,  and  so  were  we  all ;  for,  finding  that  it 
would  take  several  hours,  we  at  once  made  ready  to  go  ashore. 
I  showed  my  credentials  and  orders  from  the  Government, 
Major  Mitchell  of  St.  Louis,  etc.,  and  I  was  therefore  imme- 
diately settled  comfortably.  I  desired  to  go  to  see  the  com- 
manding officer,  and  the  lieutenant  very  politely  sent  us  there 
on  horseback,  guided  by  an  old  dragoon  of  considerable  re- 
spectability. I  was  mounted  on  a  young  white  horse,  Spanish 
saddle  with  holsters,  and  we  proceeded  across  the  prairie  to- 
wards the  Bluffs  and  the  camp.  My  guide  was  anxious  to  take 
a  short  cut,  and  took  me  across  several  bayous,  one  of  which 
was  really  up  to  the  saddle ;  but  we  crossed  that,  and  coming  to 
another  we  found  it  so  miry,  that  his  horse  wheeled  after  two 
or  three  steps,  whilst  I  was  looking  at  him  before  starting 
myself ;  for  you  all  well  know  that  an  old  traveler  is,  and  must 
be  prudent.  We  had  now  to  retrace  our  steps  till  we  reached 
the  very  tracks  that  the  squad  sent  after  us  in  the  morning  had 
taken,  and  at  last  we  reached  the  foot  of  the  Bluffs,  when  my 


72  EARLY  DAYS   AT   COUNCIL   BLUFFS 

guide  asked  me  if  I  'could  ride  at  a  gallop',  to  which  not 
answering  him,  but  starting  at  once  at  a  round  run,  I  neatly 
passed  him  ere  his  horse  was  well  at  the  pace ;  on  we  went,  and 
in  a  few  minutes  we  entered  a  beautiful  dell  or  valley,  and 
were  in  sight  of  the  encampment.  We  reached  this  in  a  trice, 
and  rode  between  two  lines  of  pitched  tents  to  one  at  the  end, 
where  I  dismounted,  and  met  Captain  Burgwin,  a  young  man 
brought  up  at  West  Point,  with  whom  I  was  on  excellent  and 
friendly  terms  in  less  time  than  it  has  taken  me  to  write  this 
account  of  our  meeting.  I  showed  him  my  credentials,  at 
which  he  smiled,  and  politely  assured  me  that  I  was  too  well 
known  throughout  the  country  to  need  any  letters.  While 
seated  in  front  of  his  tent,  I  heard  the  note  of  a  bird  new  to  me, 
and  as  it  proceeded  from  a  tree  above  our  heads,  I  looked  up 
and  saw  the  first  Yellow-headed  Troupial  that  ever  came  across 
my  own  migrations.  .  .  .  The  Captain  and  the  doctor, 
Madison  by  name,  returned  with  us  to  the  boat.  .  .  .  The 
officers  came  on  board  and  we  treated  them  as  hospitably  as 
we  could;  they  ate  lunch  with  us,  and  are  themselves  almost 
destitute  of  provisions.  .  .  .  The  Sioux  Indians  are  great 
enemies  to  the  Pottawattamies,  and  very  frequently  kill  several 
of  the  latter  in  their  predatory  excursions  against  them.  This 
kind  of  warfare  has  rendered  the  Pottawattamies  very  cowardly, 
which  Ls  quite  a  remarkable  change  from  their  previous  valor 
and  daring.  .  .  .  We  left  our  anchorage  (which  means 
tied  to  the  shore)  at  twelve  o'clock,  and  about  sunset  we  did 
pass  the  real  Council  Bluff.  Here,  however,  the  bed  of  the 
river  is  utterly  changed,  you  may  yet  see  that  which  is  called 
the  Old  Missouri.  The  Bluffs  stand,  truly  speaking,  on  a 
beautiful  bank  about  forty  feet  above  the  waters  and  run  off 
on  a  rich  prairie,  to  the  hills  in  the  background  to  a  gentle 
slope,  that  renders  the  whole  place  a  fine  and  very  remarkable 
spot.  .  .  ."  (See  Audubon  and  His  Journals,  by  Maria  R. 
Audubon,  with  Zoological  and  Other  Notes,  by  Elliott  Coues, 
Volume  1,  pages  477  to  482.) 

At  the  time  referred  to  in  the  foregoing  extracts,  from  the  lower 
end  (or  mouth)  of  the  then  known  "Hart's  Cut-off";  that  is  from 
the  western  end  of  the  lake  formed  by  that  change  in  location,  the 
Missouri  river  flowed  in  a  northwesterly  and  westerly  course  through 
"Cutoff  Lake",  shown  upon  recent  maps,  thence  southerly,  about  as 
is  now  does,  near  the  foot  of  the  bluff  where  stands  the  city  of  Omaha, 
except  that  at  about  the  site  of  Soutli  Omaha  it  bore  further  west, 
sweeping  against  the  bluff;  thence,  by  a  broad  curve,  southward  and 
ea.sterly,  and  then  Ix^aiing  to  the  north   and  east,   it    ^Kissed  on  the 


FORT  CROGHAN  73 

eastern  side  of  the  Hardin  farm  and  village  of  Council  Point ;  thence, 
through  what  is  now  "Lake  Manawa",  turning  to  the  east  and  south, 
bore  southwesterly  beyond  Trader's  Point  (Point  aux  Poulos).  So, 
the  Hardin  farm  and  Council  Point  were  within  what  was  locally 
known  later  as  the  "Big  Bend".  The  distance  between  Bellevue  and 
Hart's  Bluffs,  by  the  course  of  the  river,  was  much  greater  in  1843 
than  now. 

Beginning  on  the  river  bank  about  a  mile  south  and  west  from 
the  Hardin  farm,  a  large  marsh,  with  many  lateral  branches,  extended 
up  the  river  to  the  shore  of  the  lake  formed  by  Hart's  Cut-Off.  Its 
width  varied  from  one-half  to  one  and  one-half  miles,  and  covered 
nearly  all  of  the  surface,  though  there  was  exposed  a  high  point  in 
the  angle  between  the  river  and  the  lake  where  now  is  ' '  East  Omaha ' ' 
or  "West  End", — the  name  depending  upon  whether  one  is  in  Omaha 
or  Council  Bluffs.  This  was  the  marsh  referred  to  in  the  "Omega" 
log.  The  location  of  the  "bad  sandbar"  near  this  marsh  is  not  deter- 
minable; Missouri  river  sandbars  are  not  stable  land  marks.  It  is 
probable  that  it  was  not  far  from  Hardin's,  possibly  near  the  site  of 
South  Omaha.  Wlien  the  writer  arrived  at  Council  Bluffs,  in  1853, 
the  swamp  still  existed  in  diminished  area  and  some  of  it  may  be 
there  yet.  For  many  years  thereafter — surely  up  to  1870 — portions 
of  it  were  known  to  Council  Bluffs  sportsmen  as  "Grassy  Slough" 
and  "Smith's  Lake". 

Upon  resuming  her  voyage  above  the  "bad  sandbar"  on  the  morning 
of  May  10,  1843,  the  "Omega"  progressed  finely  until  stopped  by  the 
dragoons  at  7 :  00  A.  M.  Giving  due  consideration  to  the  course  of 
the  river,  the  slow  speed  of  the  boat,  it  may  be  assumed  that  the 
landing  of  the  ' '  Omega ' '  was  at  the  southern  bend  of  the  river,  below 
Hart's  Cut-Off,  near  the  then  foot  of  the  lake,  about  two  miles  from 
the  supposed  site  of  Hart's  trading  house.  The  distance  from  this 
point  to  Captain  Burgwin's  camp,  as  given  by  La  Barge,  was  four 
miles,  twice  repeated,  and  Audubon  says  the  troopers  "had  left  their 
camp  four  miles  distant  from  our  anchorage  at  the  same  time"  that 
the  boat  got  under  way.  P>om  this  "Omega"  landing  to  Casady's 
farm  the  distance  would  have  been  approximately  ten  miles  by  any 
route  then  practicable,  as  may  be  seen  by  examination  of  a  sectionized 
map.  The  concurrent  estimate  of  time  elapsed  between  Audubon's 
departure  from  the  boat  and  his  return  accompanied  by  Captain 
Burgwin  and  the  surgeon  is  ' '  about  two  hours ' ',  which  would  indicate 


74  EARLY  DAYS   AT   COUNCIL   BLUFFS 

that  such  a  distance  could  not  have  been  covered  by  his  travel  to 
and  from  the  military  encampment,  even  had  he  not  spent  some  time 
in  talk  with  the  officers  and  in  shooting  birds,  and  had  no  delay 
occurred  by  reason  of  being  required,  as  Audubon  says,  to  "retrace 
our  steps". 

The  distance  from  the  point  of  landing,  as  here  assumed,  to  the 
site  of  the  encampment  of  Captain  Burgwin  in  Council  Bluffs,  as 
suggested  hereinbefore,  would  have  been  substantially  four  miles — 
possibly  a  trifle  less.  Audubon's  description  of  the  ride  along  the 
foot  of  the  bluffs,  and  "on  we  went,  and  in  a  few  minutes  we  entered 
a  beautiful  dell  or  valley,  and  were  in  sight  of  the  encampment", 
tallies  perfectly  with  the  situation  last  suggested.  Had  they  gone  to 
the  Casady  farm  from  the  point  where  the  steamer  was  "summoned 
to  land"  they  would  have  been  obliged  to  cross  the  Mosquito  creek, 
probably  unbridged,  and  if  they  had  done  this  surely  Audubon,  noted 
for  attention  to  minute  detail,  would  have  mentioned  the  fact.  It 
might  be  said,  upon  the  same  line  of  argument,  that  it  is  strange  that 
he  did  not  mention  Indian  creek,  coursing  through  the  "beautiful 
dell  or  valley"  described;  but,  one  familiar  with  the  location  there 
knows  that  he  might  not,  in  fact  would  not,  have  seen  Indian  creek 
at  all.  Coming  from  the  halted  steamer  the  course  would  naturally, 
in  the  condition  of  affairs  then  existing,  have  been  along  the  southern 
margin  of  the  lake,  reaching  the  bluffs  at  or  near  the  Mynster  Spring, 
thence  along  the  foot  of  the  bluffs  and  into  the  dell,  following  the 
present  Washington  Avenue  in  Council  Bluffs  to  the  site  of  the  en- 
campment, without  even  noticing  the  little  rivulet  which  Indian  creek 
then  probably  was. 

Captain  Burgwin  and  his  troopers,  according  to  Mr.  R.  S.  Hardin, 
evacuated  their  cantonment  because  of  the  flood  and — 

"stuck  their  tents  in  the  hollow  near  where  Judge  Casady 's 
house  stands." 

The  "Duck  Hollow"  plateau — on  which  stood  the  "Log  Tabernacle" 
of  the  Mormons — logically  meets  this  description. 

The  conditions  leading  to  the  sending  of  the  command  of  Captain 
Burgwin  to  the  Pottawattamie  country  are  referred  to  in  the  1842 
report  of  the  Indian  agent.  (See  Sen.  Doc.  No.  1,  3d  Sess.,  27th  Cong., 
Vol.  1,  page  387.)     The  agent  said: 

'  *  There  was  reason  to  apprehend,  during  the  last  spring,  that 
hostilities  would  be  commenced  by  the  Sioux  against  the  united 


FORT  CROGHAN  75 

band  of  Ottawas,  Chippewas  and  Pottawattamies,  on  the 
Missouri,  who  invited  the  Delawares  to  aid  in  their  defence. 
Prompt  and  rigorous  measures  were  adopted  to  prevent  this 
outbreak,  which,  if  it  had  commenced,  would  have  involved 
consequences  of  the  most  hazardous  character  to  the  com- 
batants; would  have  probably  embroiled  neighboring  tribes, 
and  could  have  been  arrested  by  the  Government  only  at  great 
cost.  A  company  of  dragoons  was  ordered  by  your  direction 
to  Council  Bluffs,  and  assurances  given  the  threatened  party 
that  they  would  be  protected,  while  the  Indians  charged  with 
meditating  the  attack  were  warned  to  abstain  from  it.  These 
measures  were  effective,  and  the  quiet  of  the  frontier  has  been 
preserved. ' ' 

In  addition  to  Captain  Burgwin's  report  hereinbefore  mentioned, 
and  which  no  doubt  formed  the  basis  of  the  statement  of  the  War 
Department,  dated  January  22,  1916,  relative  to  the  period  during 
which  "Fort  Croghan"  was  in  existence  (quoted  in  connection  with 
the  account  of  the  Old  Blockhouse),  testimony  by  one  who  was  there 
present  showing  the  date  of  abandonment  is  contained  in  Audubon's 
journal  of  the  return  trip  of  his  party,  made  by  way  of  the  Missouri 
river  in  small  boats  in  the  months  of  September  and  October,  1843. 
Under  October  dates  appear  the  following  notes,  viz. : 

"Wednesday,  4th.  Cloudy  and  coldish.  Left  early  and 
can't  find  my  pocket  knife,  which  I  fear  I  have  lost.  We  were 
stopped  by  wind  at  Cabane  Bluffs,  about  twenty  miles  above 
Fort  Croghan.  .  .  .  Windbound  till  night,  and  nothing 
done. 

"Thursday,  5th.  Blew  hard  all  night,  but  clear  and  beauti- 
ful sunrise.  Started  early,  but  stopped  by  wind  at  eight. 
Bell,  Harris  and  Squires  have  started  off  for  Fort  Crc^han. 
As  there  was  every  appearance  of  rain  we  left  at  three  and 
reached  the  fort  about  half  past  four.  Found  all  well,  and 
most  kindly  received.  We  were  presented  with  some  green 
com  and  had  a  quantity  of  bread  made;  also  bought  thirteen 
eggs  from  an  Indian  for  twenty-five  cents.  Honey  bees  are 
found  here,  and  do  well,  but  none  are  seen  above  this  place. 

"Friday,  6th.  Some  rain  and  thunder  last  night.  A  toler- 
able day.  Breakfast  at  camp  and  left  at  half  past  eight.  Our 
man  Michaux  was  passed  over  to  the  officers'  boat,  to  steer 
them  down  to  Fort  Leavenworth,  where  they  are  ordered,  but 
we  keep  in  company,  and  he  is  to  cook  for  us  at  night.  The 
whole  station  is  broken  up,  and  Captain  Burgwin  leaves  in  a 
few  hours  by  land  with  the  dragoons,  horses,  etc.     .     .     . " 


76  EARLY  DAYS   AT   COUNCIL   BLUFFS 

Inasmuch  as  Captain  Burgwin  stated  in  August  that  the  old  en- 
campment would  not  be  fit  for  reoccupancy,  there  is  no  probability  that 
the  troops  returned  there  for  encampment  prior  to  departure. 

Thus  ends  this  story  of  "Fort  Cr(^han",  which  the  writer  believes 
to  contain  all  attainable  facts  material  to  the  history  of  the  canton- 
ment, as  well  as  some  of  his  own  deductions,  inferences  and  assump- 
tions resting  upon  apparently  strong  circumstantial  evidence  when 
considered  in  connection  with  the  conditions  existing  at  the  time 
when  the  transactions  occurred. 

Other  troops  were  sent  to  this  region  at  various  times  during  the 
occupancy  of  the  southwestern  Iowa  country  by  the  Pottawattamie 
Indians,  but  none  other  than  those  mentioned  herein  and  in  the 
several  articles  comprised  in  the  booklet  appear  to  have  been  quartered 
in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  the  site  of  the  present  city  of  Council 
Bluffs. 


THE  MORMONS. 

The  beginning  of  the  history  of  civil  government  at  and  in  the 
vicinity  of  the  site  of  the  present  city  of  Council  Bluffs  dates  from, 
the  arrival  there  of  the  Mormons — ' '  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  of  Latter 
Day  Saints"— on  June  14,  1846. 

Whither  they  were  going,  that  is  to  say,  where  would  they  fix  their 
permanent  resting  place,  was  at  that  time  unknown  even  to  their 
leaders.  They  were  fleeing  from  persecution  which  they  had  suffered 
for  a  period  of  years  in  various  portions  of  the  United  States,  especi- 
ally in  Ohio,  Missouri  and  Illinois,  and  they  had  started  upon  a 
pilgrimage,  seeking,  like  the  Children  of  Israel  of  old,  a  New  Zion  or 
"promised  land". 

There  is  strong  proof  to  indicate  that  it  was  their  intention,  at  the 
time  of  leaving  the  beautiful  city  of  Nauvoo — the  largest  then  in  the 
State  of  Illinois — which  they  had  builded  at  much  expense,  time  and 
labor,  to  go  beyond  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Government  of  the  United 
States;  and  there  is  good  reason  for  the  belief  that  California — then 
a  part  of  Mexico — was  the  contemplated  goal;  that  they  intended  to 
effect  settlement  there  and,  eventually,  to  seize  the  territory  occupied 
and  found  a  government  of  their  own.  And  there  is  evidence  of  no 
mean  character  to  indicate  that  in  such  enterprise  they  were  encour- 
aged and  promised  aid  by  prominent  officials  of  the  United  States 
Government,  and  that  the  Government  itself,  as  represented  by  several 
cabinet  officers  and  influential  members  of  the  Senate,  if  not  actually 
a  party  to  the  undertaking,  allowed  it  to  be  understood  that  the  move- 
ment would  not  meet  with  federal  opposition  or  interference. 

It  was  under  such  conditions  and  with  the  hope  that  at  least  the 
advance  parties  would  reach  the  Pacific  coast  that  season  that  the 
emigrants  began  crossing  the  Mississippi  river  on  February  5  and  6, 
1846,  and  established  their  first  camp  on  Sugar  creek,  opposite  Nauvoo 
and  not  far  from  Keokuk,  in  the  Territory  of  Iowa,  where,  on  the  15th 
of  that  month,  they  were  joined  by  Brigham  Young  and  other  leaders, 
and  organization  of  the  caravans  was  begun. 

The  start  from  Sugar  creek  was  made  on  March  1,  1846,  and  at 
about  the  same  time  the  ship  "Brooklyn",  with  a  number  of  "Saints" 
and  large  quantities  of  supplies  on  board,  sailed  from  New  York,  via 
Cape  Horn,  for  San  Francisco. 


78  EARLY  DAYS  AT  COUNCIL   BLUFFS 

On  March  21,  1846,  near  the  river  Chariton,  the  organization  of 
the  "Camps  of  Israel"  was  perfected.  Near  the  end  of  April,  Garden 
Grove  (so  named  by  them)  was  reached  and  there  was  established  a 
settlement.  Shortly  afterward  another  settlement  was  founded  at 
what  they  called  Mount  Pisgah;  and,  on  June  14,  the  head  of  the 
column  reached  the  Missouri  river  at  or  near  the  site  of  the  present 
city  of  Council  Bluffs,  where  another  settlement  was  begun. 

These  settlements  were  made  for  the  purpose  of  affording  rest  for 
the  moving  trains,  for  the  planting  of  crops  to  be  cultivated  and  used 
by  following  parties,  and  similar  ones  were  to  be  established  and 
maintained  along  the  route,  as  relay  stations,  forming  a  continuous 
line  of  connection  from  the  beginning  to  the  end  of  the  journey,  and 
they  were  called  "Stakes  of  Zion". 

Within  a  few  days  after  arrival  at  Council  Bluffs  Captain  James 
Allen,  with  a  few  dragoons,  visited  the  camp  and  laid  before  the 
leaders  a  proposition,  submitted  by  the  Government  through  Colonel 
Stephen  W.  Kearny,  commandant  of  the  military  district  with  head- 
quarters at  Fort  Leavenworth,  for  the  raising  by  the  Mormon  Church 
of  a  force  of  from  five  hundred  to  one  thousand  men  for  service  in 
the  war  with  Mexico.  As  an  inducement  for  compliance  with  the  re- 
quest it  was  promised  that  the  men  should  be  taken  through  to  Cali- 
fornia, where,  at  the  expiration  of  the  term  of  enlistment,  they  would 
be  discharged  with  full  pay  and  permitted  to  retain  their  arms  and 
all  equipment.  There  not  being  a  sufficient  number  at  Council  Bluffs, 
Brigham  Young,  Heber  C.  Kimball  and  Willard  Richards  (of  the 
High  Council),  accompanied  by  Captain  Allen  and  three  dragoons, 
visited  the  settlement  at  Mount  Pisgah,  and,  by  sending  messengers 
to  Garden  Grove,  secured  volunteers  to  the  number  of  five  hundred 
and  twenty.  Within  three  days  after  the  arrival  of  these  men  at 
Council  Bluffs  they  were  equipped,  mustered  into  the  United  States 
service  and  ready  to  march  to  Fort  Leavenworth,  for  which  place 
they  departed  on  July  20,  1846. 

"A  Concise  History  of  the  Mormon  Battalion  in  the  Mexican  War — 
1846-1847— by  Sergeant  Daniel  Tyler",  is  the  title  of  a  work  con- 
taining much  first-hand  information  concerning  the  movements  of 
this  body  of  troops.  Incorporated  in  it  are  various  other  papers,  one 
of  which  is  "The  Mormons,  a  Discourse  delivered  before  the  His- 
torical Society  of  Pennsylvania,  March  26,  1850,  by  Thomas  L.  Kane". 
Speaking  of  the  raising  of  this  battalion,  he  having  been  present  at 
the  time,  Mr.  Kane  said : 


THE  MORMONS  79 

"They  were  collected  a  little  above  the  Pottawattamie 
Agency.  The  hills  of  the  'High  Prairie'  crowding  upon  the 
river  at  this  point,  and  overhanging  it,  appear  of  an  unusual 
and  commanding  elevation.  They  are  called  the  Council  Bluffs ; 
a  name  given  them  with  another  meaning,  but  well  illustrated 
by  the  picturesque  congress  of  their  high  and  mighty  summits. 
To  the  south  of  them,  a  rich  alluvial  flat  of  considerable  width 
follows  down  the  Missouri,  some  eight  miles,  to  where  it  is  lost 
from  view  at  a  turn,  which  forms  the  site  of  an  Indian  town 
of  Point  aux  Poules. ' ' 

Referring  to  the  departure  of  the  volunteers  for  Fort  Leavenworth, 
many  of  whom  were  married  and  leaving  wives  and  children,  and  the 
events  connected  therewith,  the  author  said: 

"There  was  no  sentimental  leave  taking.  The  afternoon  was 
appropriated  to  a  farewell  ball;  and  a  more  merry  dancing 
rout  I  have  never  seen,  though  the  company  went  without  re- 
freshments, and  their  ball  room  was  of  the  most  primitive.  It 
was  the  custom,  whenever  the  larger  camps  rested  for  a  few 
days  together,  to  make  great  arbors,  or  boweries,  as  they  called 
them,  of  poles  and  brush,  and  wattling,  as  places  of  shelter  for 
their  meetings  of  devotion  or  conference.  In  one  of  these  where 
the  ground  had  been  trodden  firm  and  hard  by  the  worshippers 
of  the  popular  Father  Taylor's  precinct,  was  gathered  now  the 
mirth  and  beauty  of  the  Mormon  Israel.  .  .  .  Light  hearts, 
lithe  figures  and  light  feet,  had  it  their  own  way  from  an  early 
hour  till  after  the  sun  had  dipped  behind  the  sharp  skj'-line 
of  the  Omaha  hills." 

The  precise  place  where  these  troops  were  mustered  does  not  appear 
in  any  of  the  works  which  have  fallen  under  the  eye  of  the  writer 
here,  but  in  the  Journal  of  Sergeant  William  Hyde,  incorporated  in 
Sergeant  Tyler's  History  (page  128),  it  is  said: 

"We  were  mustered  into  the  service  of  the  United  States 
on  the  16th  of  July,  1846,  and  marched  to  the  Missouri  river, 
a  distance  of  eight  miles.     .     .     . " 

Reverend  Henry  De  Long,  who  still  resides  at  Council  Bluffs,  was 
with  the  Mormons  who  early  arrived  at  that  place,  being  then  some 
twelve  or  fourteen  years  of  age.  In  a  letter  addressed  to  the  writer 
November  18,  1915,  he  says: 

"My  remembrance  of  the  raising  of  the  Mormon  Battalion 
is  this:  They  had  a  regular  city  composed  of  wagons  and 
tents;  some  four  thousand  inhabitants,  at  what  is  now  Dodge 


80  EARLY  DAYS  AT  COUNCIL  BLUFFS 

Orchard  and  J.  G.  Rice's  place.  Brigham  Young's  tent  was 
the  most  conspicuous  of  them  all.  A  flag  pole  sixty  or  eighty 
feet  high  stood  in  front  of  it.  Amidst  the  beating  of  drums 
and  martial  music  the  men  fell  into  line  as  volunteers  were 
called  for.  Most  of  those  that  went  were  counseled  by  Brigham 
Young  to  go.  When  five  hundred  men  were  secured  they 
marched  to  Trader's  Point  and  there  took  a  steamboat  for  St. 
Louis,  about  the  middle  of  July,  if  I  remember  rightly.  Among 
them  was  William  Garner. ' ' 

This  would  indicate  that  the  first  rendezvous  of  volunteer  soldiers 
in  Western  Iowa  was  at  the  identical  place,  upon  the  very  same  ground, 
as  were  those  of  later  date,  at  the  beginning  of  the  War  of  the  Re- 
bellion. On  the  plateau  on  the  north  (right)  bank  of  Mosquito  creek, 
opposite  the  site  of  the  Institute  for  the  Deaf  and  Dumb.  Mr.  De 
Long  is  mistaken,  however,  in  regard  to  the  battalion  taking  passage 
by  steamboat  for  St.  Louis.  The  record  shows  that  they  marched  to 
Trader's  Point  (Point  aux  Poules)  on  the  day  of  muster,  where  they 
were  outfitted,  and  thence,  by  way  of  Black  Snake  Hills  (St.  Joseph), 
to  Fort  Leavenworth,  from  which  point,  in  conjunction  with  other 
troops,  they  marched  and  found  their  way,  along  the  old  "Santa  Fe 
Trail",  onward  to  California,  where,  joined  with  the  command  of 
General  Kearny,  they  assisted  in  the  seizure  of  the  territory  now 
embraced  in  that  State  which  resulted  in  its  becoming  a  part  of  these 
United  States. 

The  raising  of  this  battalion  resulted  in  materially  modifying  the 
plans  of  the  emigrants.  It  was  believed  by  the  leaders  that,  with  such 
a  reduction  of  their  numbers,  the  taking  away  of  the  flower  of  their 
defensive  force,  it  would  not  be  prudent  to  undertake  to  cross  the 
plains  that  season  in  the  face  of  the  numerous  bands  of  hostile  Indians ; 
so  a  semi-permanent  encampment  was  established  at  Council  Bluffs, 
then  still  in  the  possession  of  the  Pottawattamie  Indians,  though  they 
had  previously  negotiated  and  some  of  them  had  signed  a  treaty  by 
which  their  lands  were  ceded  to  the  United  States.  These  Indians 
were,  under  the  circumstances,  willing  that  the  emigrants  should  live 
among  them  and  readily  granted  permission. 

To  the  end  that  an  early  resumption  of  their  journey  the  following 
season  should  not  be  interfered  with  by  late  opening  of  the  Missouri 
river,  it  was  deemed  advisable  that  the  main  body  should  cross  the 
stream  and,  if  possible,  make  settlement  on  its  western  (right)  bank. 
Accordingly  negotiations  were  begun  with  the  Omaha  Indians  who 


THE  MORMONS  81 

then  occupied  the  lands  on  that  side.  Those  Indians  being  at  war 
with  the  Sioux  immediately  recognized  the  advantage  it  would  be  to 
them  to  have  so  large  a  body  of  whites  upon  their  northern  border, 
who  would  serve  as  a  buffer  and  protect  them  from  the  onslaughts 
of  their  enemies;  therefore,  permission  was  readily  granted  by  them 
that  the  emigrants  should  occupy  the  territory  for  a  period  not  ex- 
ceeding two  years. 

Because  of  the  beauty  of  the  site,  its  desirability  on  account  of 
bountiful  supplies  of  wood  and  water,  and  because  of  the  existence 
there  of  an  abandoned  trading  post,  with  stockade,  in  fairly  good 
condition,  "Winter  Quarters"  were  established  upon  the  site  later 
occupied  by  the  town  of  Florence  (now  embraced  within  the  limits 
of  the  Greater  Omaha),  and  Brigham  Young  and  other  leaders  located 
headquarters  there. 

In  a  work  the  title  page  of  which  is,  "Route  from  Liverpool  to 
Great  Salt  Lake  City,  Illustrated  with  Steel  Engravings  and  Wood 
Cuts  from  Sketches  made  by  Frederick  Piercy;  Edited  by  James 
Linforth.  Liverpool :  Published  by  Franklin  D,  Richards,  36  Islington. 
London:  Latter  Day  Saints'  Book  Depot,  35  Jevin  Street,  City. 
MDCCCLV",  on  page  83,  in  regard  to  Winter  Quarters,  it  is  said: 

"Upwards  of  1000  houses  were  soon  built — 700  of  them  in 
about  3  months — on  a  pretty  plateau  overlooking  the  river,  and 
neatly  laid  out  with  highways  and  by  ways,  and  fortified  with 
breastwork  and  stockade.  'It  had  too  it»  place  of  worship, 
"Tabernacle  of  the  Congregation",  and  various  large  work- 
shops, mills  and  factories  provided  with  water  power.'  .  .  . 
Always  capricious,  and  in  this  case  instigated  by  white  men, 
the  Indians,  notwithstanding  they  had  formally  given  the 
Saints  permission  to  settle  upon  their  lands,  complained  to  the 
Indian  Agents  that  they  were  trespassing  upon  them,  and  they 
were  requested  to  remove.  From  this  circumstance  is  at- 
tributable the  rise  and  rapid  growth  of  Kanesville,  leaving 
Winter  Quarters  again  entirely  to  its  savage  inhabitants,  and 
only  ruins  point  to  its  former  prosperity,  and  now  its  situation. 

5  5 

The  visit  of  Mr.  Piercy  to  this  place  was  made  in  1853  ©r  1854,  at 
which  time  it  appears  that  practically  all  of  the  improvements  made  by 
the  Mormons  had  been  destroyed,  and  the  site  was  used  merely  as 
camping  grounds  for  the  later  emigration  of  the  Saints,  and  a  ferry 
had  been  established  there.  On  page  81  of  the  book  just  cited  it  is 
said: 


82  EARLY  DAYS   AT  COUNCIL   BLUFFS 

"At  Kanesville  I  was  kindly  permitted  to  join  the  emi- 
grating company,  under  the  presidency  of  Elders  Miller  and 
Cooley,  .  .  .  The  company  being  ready  to  move  we  drove 
down  to  Ferryville,  or  Council  Bluffs  Ferry,  12  miles  distant, 
and  just  opposite  Winter  Quarters,  at  which  point  we  crossed 
the  Missouri  into  Indian  Territory,  now  Nebraska  and  Kansas. 

"The  ferry-boats  are  flat  bottomed,  and  large  enough  to 
carry  2  wagons  of  ordinary  size.  The  starting  point  is  usually 
chosen  a  considerable  distance  up  the  stream,  so  that  the  current 
may  assist  in  conveying  the  boats  to  the  landing  place  on  the 
opposite  side  of  the  river.  .  .  .  The  camping  place  on  the 
west  side  of  the  Missouri  was  about  a  mile  from  the  landing, 
in  the  vicinity  of  2  springs,  near  the  site  of  Winter  Quarters. 
I  paid  a  visit  to  the  old  place,  and  found  that  some  person  had 
set  fire  to  the  last  house  that  remained  of  the  once  flourishing 
settlement.     .     .     . 

(Page  84)  :  "Since  the  organization  of  Nebraska  Territory 
an  effort  has  been  made,  owing  to  the  desirable  situation  of 
Winter  Quarters,  and  its  good  ferriage  and  water  facilities,  to 
build  a  city  by  the  name  of  Florence  upon  the  old  site." 

The  total  population  of  Winter  Quarters,  at  the  time  of  the  general 
removal  thence  in  1848,  is  not  positively  known;  but,  judging  from 
the  number  of  houses  erected,  it  must  have  been  in  the  neighborhood 
of  from  five  to  six  thousand.  Probably  more  than  half  of  the  people 
went  with  the  departing  train  to  Salt  Lake  City;  and  a  majority  of 
those  remaining  removed  to  Kanesville,  while  others  settled  at  various 
places  within  the  Pottawattamie  country,  notably  at  C^rterville, 
Macedonia,  Springville,  in  Pottawattamie  County,  and  Cutler's  Camp, 
Coonville  (now  Glenwood),  and  Bethlehem,  in  what  is  now  Mills 
County,  the  last-mentioned  place  having  been  swept  away  by  the 
Missouri  river  long  ago.  It  was  opposite  the  mouth  of  the  Platte 
river. 

Within  a  few  weeks  after  the  arrival  of  the  emigrants  at  the  Missouri 
river  they  arranged  a  form  of  government  for  the  contemplated  en- 
campment at  that  point,  in  regard  to  which  the  writer  has  a  letter 
from  the  Latter  Day  Saints'  Historian's  Office,  dated  Salt  Lake  City, 
Utah,  December  24,  1915,  giving  information  as  follows: 

"About  the  municipal  government  which  obtained  from  1846 
till  the  creation  of  Pottawattamie  County,  the  following  is 
recorded  in  tlie  Journal  History  of  the  'Mormon  Church': 


THE  MORMONS  83 

"  'July  21,  1846,  a  High  Council  was  organized  at  Council 
Point,  near  Council  Bluffs,  to  preside  over  the  temporal  and 
spiritual  affairs  of  that  camp  and  the  other  settlements  organ- 
ized since  leaving  Nauvoo.  The  following  brethren  were  sus- 
tained as  a  High  Council :  Isaac  Morley,  Geo.  W.  Harris,  James 
Allred,  Thos.  Grover,  Phineas  Richards,  Heman  Hyde,  Andrew 
H.  Perkins,  Wm.  G.  Perkins,  Henry  W.  Miller,  Daniel  Spencer, 
Jonathan  H.  Hale,  and  John  Murdock.' 

' '  The  personnel  of  this  High  Council  was  changed  from  time 
to  time  as  members  of  the  same  migrated  to  Great  Salt  Lake 
Valley,  and  other  men  were  chosen  to  fill  the  vacancies;  and, 
after  the  organization  of  Pottawattamie  County,  the  jurisdic- 
tion of  this  High  Council  was  confined  to  religious  or  spiritual 
affairs  mainly. ' ' 

Relative  to  the  first  occupancy  of  any  portion  of  what  was  the 
original  town  on  the  site  of  the  present  city  of  Council  Bluffs,  it  is 
said,  in  the  letter  here  mentioned,  that: 

"  ...  in  the  advance  company  was  Bishop  Geo.  Miller 
and  also  Henry  W.  Miller;  the  latter  Miller  soon  afterwards 
settled  in  what  some  [time]  afterwards  became  known  as 
'Miller's  Hollow',  while  the  other  Miller  cro.ssed  the  river, 
traveled  westward  [?]  and  wintered  among  the  Ponca  Indians, 
1846-47. 

"At  an  adjourned  session  of  a  general  conference  of  the 
Church  of  Jesus  Christ  of  Latter  Day  Saints,  held  in  the  log 
tabernacle.  Miller's  Hollow,  April  8,  1848,  Orson  Hyde  moved 
that  'the  place  hitherto  known  as  Miller's  Hollow  be  named 
Kanesville,  in  honor  of  Col.  Thomas  L.  Kane.'  " 

That  motion  was  agreed  to  and  the  name  Kanesville  endured  until 
after  the  final  general  exodus  of  the  Mormons  from  the  locality.  The 
log  tabernacle,  referred  to  above,  was  erected  in  December,  1847,  and 
stood  on  or  near  what  is  now  known  as  Harmony  Street,  between 
Benton  and  Frank  Streets.  The  residence  of  Henry  W.  Miller,  from 
which  the  original  name  was  acquired,  was  north  of  Broadway  and 
not  far  from  the  present  site  of  the  Federal  building,  near  Seventh 
Street. 

April  7,  1847,  Brigham  Young,  at  the  head  of  an  exploring  party 
consisting  of  one  hundred  and  forty-three  picked  men,  embracing 
eight  of  the  Twelve  Apostles,  set  out  from  "Winter  Quarters"  in 
search  of  the  "Promised  Land".  He  returned  on  October  31st,  having 
decided  upon  the  Great  Salt  Lake  Valley,  and  the  site  of  the  present 


84  EARLY  DAYS   AT  COUNCIL   BLUFFS 

Salt  Lake  City,  as  the  most  desirable  location,  and  established  a  colony 
there. 

During  his  absence  difficulties  arose  between  the  Mormons  and  the 
Omaha  Indians,  resulting  in  a  request  by  the  Indian  department  of 
the  Government  for  the  abandonment  of  "Winter  Quarters"  and 
other  places  in  the  Omaha  country  then  occupied  by  the  Saints.  Ac- 
cordingly, in  the  spring  of  1848,  the  great  body  of  Mormons  then  in 
Nebraska,  Brigham  at  the  head,  departed  on  the  journey  to  the  newly- 
established  Zion,  their  train  comprising  six  hundred  wagons.  Those 
left  behind  removed  to  various  places  on  the  Iowa  side  of  the  river, 
as  hereinbefore  stated,  and  "Winter  Quarters",  as  such,  ceased  to 
exist,  though  it  was  for  many  years  afterward  used  as  temporary 
camping  ground  for  Mormon  emigrants  en  route  to  the  Great  Salt 
Lake  Valley. 

In  the  meantime,  however,  occurred  at  KanesviUe  one  of  the  most 
important  events  connected  with  the  history  of  the  church.  By  those 
familiar  with  that  history  it  will  be  recalled  that,  after  the  death  of 
Joseph  Smith  (the  prophet),  the  then  existing  organization  was  aban- 
doned and  the  affairs  temporal  and  spiritual  were  vested  in  a  council. 

On  page  114  of  the  work  entitled  "Route  from  Liverpool  to  Great 
Salt  Lake  City",  is  found  the  following: 

"They  returned  to  Winter  Quarters,  Council  Bluffs,  where 
they  arrived  on  the  31st  of  October,  and  an  Epistle  was  issued 
on  the  23d  of  December,  by  the  Twelve  Apostles,  noticing  the 
principal  events  which  had  befallen  the  Saints  since  the  ex- 
pulsion from  Nauvoo,  and  the  discovery  of  G.  S.  h.  Valley.  It 
is  also  stated  that  it  is  in  contemplation  to  reorganize  the 
Church,  according  to  the  original  pattern,  with  First  Presi- 
dency and  Patriarch.  Accordingly,  on  the  24th,  the  day  follow- 
ing, at  a  conference  held  at  the  'Log  Tabernacle'  in  KanesviUe, 
State  of  Iowa,  the  suggestion  was  brought  before  the  Saints 
who  'hailed  it  as  an  action  which  the  state  of  the  work  at 
present  demanded',  and  'Brigham  Young  was  nominated  to  be 
the  First  President  of  the  Church,  and  he  nominated  Heber  C. 
Kimball  and  Willard  Richards  to  be  his  two  counsellors,  which 
nominations  were  seconded  and  carried  without  a  dissentient 
voice'.  The  appointment  was  afterwards  acknowledged  at  a 
General  Conference  on  the  6th  of  April,  1848,  at  the  same  place 
at  which  the  appointment  was  made." 

Upon  the  abandonment  of  "Winter  Quarters"  KanesviUe  became 
the  church  official  headquarters  for  the  Missouri  river  country.     On 


THE  MORMONS  85 

page  648  of  "The  History  of  Salt  Lake  City  and  its  Founders,  by 
Edward  W.  Tullidge",  published  by  authority  of  the  organization  at 
Salt  Lake  City,  from  which  work  have  been  gleaned  many  of  the  facts 
set  forth  herein,  appears  the  following: 

"Before  the  return  of  the  Pioneers  to  the  mountains,  they 
appointed  Orson  Pratt  to  preside  over  the  mission  in  Great 
Britain,  and  to  push  emigration  to  the  fullest  extent,  while 
Orson  Hyde,  George  A.  Smith  and  E.  T.  Benson  were  stationed 
at  Council  Bluffs  to  receive  the  emigrants  from  abroad,  and  to 
promote  their  speedy  removal  to  the  Valley,  as  well  as  the  re- 
moval of  those  of  the  community  who  had  concentrated  there 
after  the  exodus  from  Nauvoo." 

In  the  letter  from  the  Latter  Day  Saints  Historian's  Office,  to  which 
referisnce  has  hereinbefore  been  made,  it  is  said : 

"  ...  After  the  evacuation  of  Winter  Quarters  (now 
Florence),  in  1848,  nearly  all  of  the  Mormons  who  did  not 
migrate  to  the  'Valley'  that  year  settled  in  and  near  Potta- 
wattamie County,  with  headquarters  at  Kanesville,  and  at  one 
time  there  were  about  forty  branches  of  the  Church  on  that 
side  of  the  Missouri  river.  Apostle  Orson  Hyde  presided  almost 
continuouly  from  1848  to  1852." 

Upon  petitions  submitted  by  Brigham  Young,  the  Iowa  legislature 
provided  for  the  temporary  organization  * '  into  a  county,  by  the  name 
of  Pottawattamie",  of  "the  country  embraced  within  the  limits  of 
what  is  called  the  'Pottawattamie  Purchase',  the  act  being  approved 
February  24,  1847 ;  and  the  Government  of  the  United  States  es- 
tablished a  postoffice  at  "Miller's  Hollow'',  to  be  known  as  "Kane", 
January  17,  1848,  and  Evan  M.  Greene  was  appointed  postmaster 
February  7,  1848.  Shortly  afterward  (precise  date  not  officially 
shown,  nor  location  given, )  another  postoffice  was  established  in  Potta- 
wattamie County,  known  as  "Nebraska",  as  the  postmaster  for  which 
Joseph  T.  Pendleton  was  named.  May  30,  1849.  Inasmuch  as  it  is 
within  the  knowledge  of  the  writer  that  Mr.  Pendleton  resided  at 
Trader's  Point;  that  the  name  of  the  Office  is  shown  by  official  records 
to  have  been  changed  to  Council  Bluffs  May  30,  1850,  and  to  Trader's 
Point  on  December  10,  1852;  that  on  a  map  published  in  1851  the 
latter-named  place  was  borne  as  Council  Bluffs;  that  the  name  of 
Kane  postoffice  was  changed  to  Council  Bluffs  on  December  10,  1852, 
it  would  seem  reasonable  to  believe  that  the  postoffice  of  Nebraska  was 


86  EARLY  DAYS  AT  COUNCIL   BLUFFS 

located  at  Trader's  Point.    On  March  11,  1850,  a  postoffice  was  estab- 
lished at  Macedonia.    All  of  these  resulted  from  Mormon  effort. 

February  7,  1849,  was  issued  the  first  number  of  the  publication 
called  the  Frontier  Guardian,  not  precisely  a  newspaper  though  in 
the  form  of  one ;  an  organ  of  the  Saints,  published  by  Apostle  Orson 
Hyde.  Still,  it  did  publish  items  that  might  be  termed  news,  but  per- 
taining almost  exclusively  to  church  matters.  Of  course  these  char- 
acteristics were  in  a  measure  unavoidable,  even  had  the  inclination  to 
make  them  otherwise  existed,  because  of  the  isolation  of  the  community 
on  the  extreme  frontier  beyond  the  lines  of  ordinary  communication. 
In  one  of  the  early  issues  it  was  said : 

"It  affords  unmeasured  pleasure  to  see  the  favorable  results 
of  some  limited  exertions,  not  long  since  made,  in  favor  of 
education.  Two  flourishing  schools  in  our  little  town,  of  about 
eighty  scholars  each,  conducted  by  a  principal  and  assistant 
to  each  one,  with  many  others  in  various  parts  of  the  country 
that  have  sprung  into  existence." 

Its  issue  of  June  12,  1850,  estimates  the  number  of  teams  crossing 
the  river  during  the  season,  up  to  that  date,  at  about  four  thousand 
five  hundred,  with  probably  thirteen  thousand  five  hundred  men  and 
about  twenty -two  thousand  horses,  mules,  oxen  and  cows;  and  states 
that  Orson  Hyde 's  own  train  would  probably  consist  of  seven  hundred 
wagons,  with  two  carding  machines  and  other  valuable  machinery; 
also  four  thousand  sheep  and  five  thousand  cattle,  and  added : 

"We  have  attended  the  organization  of  three  hundred  and 
fifty  wagons  of  Salt  Lake  emigrants  up  to  Saturday  the  8th 
inst.  We  left  them  at  Council  Grove,  twelve  miles  from  Bethle- 
hem, west  of  the  Missouri  river. ' ' 

Mr.  Kane,  in  the  paper  from  which  quotation  has  been  made  herein- 
before, referring  to  means  of  crossing  the  river,  said : 

"Our  nearest  ferry  was  that  over  the  Missouri.  Nearly  op- 
posite the  Pull  Point,  or  Point  aux  Poules,  a  trading  post  of 
the  American  Fur  Company,  and  village  of  the  Pottawatta- 
mies. ' ' 

Th(!  ferry  rofi^rrcd  to  by  him  was  owned  and  operated  by  Peter  A. 
t<.i,.py_" Colonel  Peter  A.  Sarpy,  by-gad,  sir,"— as  he  was  wont 
himself  to  say,  who  wjus  what  our  English  friends  would  term  the 
American  Fur  Company's  "Factor"  at  Bellevue,  nearly  opposite 
Trader's  Point,  anrl  lie  lind  fstjiblished    such    exorbitant    rates    for 


THE  MORMONS  87 

ferriage  that  an  opposition  establishment  was  set  up  a  short  distance 
below,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Platte  river  below  the  mouth  of  which  was 
its  western  landing.  James  A.  Little,  in  his  book  entitled  "From 
Kirtland  to  Salt  Lake",  to  which  the  present  writer  is  under  obliga- 
tions, referring  to  the  year  1852,  says : 

"For  some  reason  the  most  of  the  Mormon  emigration 
traveled  the  south  side  of  the  Platte.  They  crossed  the  Missouri 
river  eighteen  miles  below  Kanesville  at  an  insignificant  hamlet 
called  Bethlehem."     (Page  240.) 

Mr.  Little  visited  Council  Bluffs  in  1854  and  spent  some  days  there 
renewing  old  acquaintance.  In  describing  the  place  as  then  seen  he 
said,  among  other  things,  that: 

"Through  the  western  part  of  the  town  ran  Indian  (alias 
Lousey)  creek.  .  .  .  Running  along  its  western  bank  about 
half  a  mile  was  Greene  Street,  so  named  in  honor  of  Mr.  Evan 
Greene,  who  was  one  of  the  first  residents  in  the  locality.  He 
was  an  early  pioneer  and  the  first  postmaster  of  the  place,  then 
called  Kanesville,  in  honor  of  Col.  Thos.  L.  Kane,  the  philan- 
thropist. ' ' 

He  had  his  points  of  the  compass  slightly  mixed  as  any  one  ac- 
quainted with  the  place  will  readily  perceive.  At  the  time  of  which 
he  wrote  Indian  creek  scarcely  touched  the  western  part  of  the  town. 
It  ran  through  the  northern  part,  for  about  the  distance  mentioned  by 
him,  turning  to  the  north  at  the  western  edge  of  the  town  as  it  then 
existed,  and,  skirting  the  foot  of  the  bluffs  for  a  short  way,  lost  itself 
in  a  swamp  at  the  site  of  Dagger's  Mill.  But,  this  is  digressing  slightly 
from  Mormon  days,  extending  beyond  the  period  of  actual  Mormon 
occupancy. 

Dagger's  Mill  was  erected  by  Madison  Dagger,  about  1848,  originally 
a  grist  mill  exclusively;  but  later  a  saw  was  added.  Its  power  was 
derived  from  the  waters  of  Indian  creek  poured  upon  an  overshot 
wheel.  The  dam  was  at  Benton  street,  and  the  water  was  carried  in  a 
ditch  along  the  north  bank  of  the  original  stream  to  the  edge  of  the 
bluff  under  which  the  mill  was  situated.  This  ditch  followed  along 
the  south  side  of  the  western  part  of  Greene  street,  which,  for  that 
reason,  was  called  Race  street  (now  Washington  Avenue),  and  was  no 
doubt  the  stream  which  Mr.  Little  supposed  to  be  the  creek  itself. 

Almon  W.  Babbitt,  an  elder  of  the  Mormon  Church  and  a  man  of 
strong  personality  and  combative  instincts,  never  in  very  high  favor 


88  EARLY  DAYS   AT   COUNCIL   BLUFFS 

with  the  ruling  powers,  seems  to  have  disliked  Apostle  Hyde 's  methods 
of  conducting  the  Frontier  Guardian,  and,  therefore,  in  1850,  he 
founded  an  opposition  publication  named  the  Weekly  Western  Bugle. 
It  was  the  fashion  among  newspapers  at  that  time  to  carry  below  the 
main  head  line  some  kind  of  a  motto,  and  Brother  Babbitt  seems  to 
have  received  inspiration  for  his  from  the  well-known  lines  of  "The 
Battle  Field",  by  William  Cullen  Bryant: 

"Truth  crushed  to  earth  shall  rise  again, — 
The  eternal  years  of  God  are  hers; 
But  error,  wounded,  writhes  in  pain, 
And  dies  among  her  worshippers". 

So,  the  motto  adopted  for  the  Bugle  was,  "Truth,  tho'  crushed,  shall 
rise  again."  With  the  departure  of  Apostle  Hyde  for  Salt  Lake  City, 
in  1852,  his  publication  was  absorbed  by  that  of  Babbitt  and  the  title 
became  the  Weekly  Western  Bugle  and  Frontier  Guardian,  under 
which  the  paper  continued  so  long  as  the  existing  advertising  contracts 
of  the  Guardian  remained  in  force,  when,  the  name  of  the  town  having 
been  changed,  the  title  of  the  paper  became  Weekly  Council  Bluffs 
Bugle.  By  this  time  the  concern  had  passed  into  the  ownership  of 
Joseph  E.  Johnson  and  L.  0.  Littlefield,  the  former,  an  elder  of  the 
Mormon  church,  being  editor,  and  the  latter,  a  layman  printer,  the 
publisher.  But  this  was  after  the  almost  exclusive  occupancy  and 
complete  control  of  the  town,  which  had  existed  for  upward  of  six 
years,  had  passed  from  the  church. 

No  evidence  has  been  found  to  indicate  that  newspapers  or  any 
periodical  publications  other  than  the  two  mentioned,  were  issued  at 
Kanesville  or  in  the  vicinity  during  the  official  occupancy  by  the 
Mormons.    It  is  believed  that  there  were  none. 

Although  the  "Stakes  of  Zion" — (such  as  Garden  Grove,  Mount 
Pisgah,  and  Winter  Quarters) — established  by  the  "Camps  of  Israel" 
along  the  line  of  march  from  Nauvoo  to  Great  Salt  Lake  City  were 
intended  merely  to  be  temporary  camps,  or  way  stations,  fairly  per- 
manent improvements  were  made  at  each.  Tabernacles  were  erected, 
mills  built,  and  business  houses  established,  as  indicated  by  the  extract 
above  made  from  "Route  from  Liverpool  to  Great  Salt  Lake  City" 
descriptive  of  Winter  Quarters;  though  that  was  by  far  the  largest 
and  most  important  of  thciii  all.  True,  no  buildings  were  constructed 
of  brick  or  stone,  nor  docs  it  appear  that  bricks  were  at  any  of  them 
manufactured  under  the  direction  of  the;  church  authorities;  but  Rev. 


THE  MORMONS  89 

Henry  De  Long,  who  has  been  hereinbefore  quoted,  under  date  of 
March  24,  1916,  has  informed  the  writer  that : 

"In  1849,  a  man  by  the  name  of  Roberts  started  a  pottery 
in  '  Duck  Hollow ',  what  is  now  Harrison  Street,  a  short  distance 
north  of  the  junction  of  Harrison  and  Harmony  Streets.  In 
connection  with  the  pottery,  a  man  whose  name  I  have  forgotten, 
burned  a  brick  kiln,  and  these  brick  were  used  in  the  construc- 
tion of  the  little  powder  magazine  that  stood  on  the  hill  back 
of  the  Ogden  House." 

Inasmuch  as  the  surrounding  adjacent  country  was  devoid  of  coal 
of  any  kind,  the  blacksmiths  and  other  workers  in  metal  were  de- 
pendent for  fuel  supplies  upon  the  steamboats  of  the  American  Fur 
Company,  which  passed  up  and  down  the  river  once  or  twice  each 
season,  and  upon  charcoal  manufactured  in  the  locality,  consequently 
there  were  numerous  charcoal  pits  or  kilns  in  and  about  Kanesville. 

When  the  exodus  from  Winter  Quarters  occurred,  in  May,  1848,  the 
more  important  of  the  business  concerns  of  the  place  removed  to  Great 
Salt  Lake  City,  and  a  number  of  the  smaller  establishments  recrossed 
the  Missouri  river  and  located  at  Kanesville  and  adjacent  small  towns. 
Many  of  these  became  fixtures  and  grew  into  the  leading  business  con- 
cerns in  the  early  life  of  Council  Bluffs. 

Mormon  control  in  Western  Iowa,  especially  at  Kanesville,  ceased  in 
the  spring  of  1852,  when  Apostle  Orson  Hyde  departed,  bag  and 
baggage,  with  all  the  Saints  whom  he  could  by  any  means  induce  to 
accompany  him. 


90 


EARLY  DAYS   AT   COUNCIL   BLUFFS 


THE  MORMONS  91 


A  STREET  SCENE  IN  COUNCIL  BLUFFS. 

This  is  a  picture  of  the  Phoenix  Block,  north  side  of  Broadway  at 
the  corner  of  what  was  originally  Hyde,  subsequently  Madison,  now 
North  First  Street.  It  was  one  among  the  first  brick  business  buildings 
erected  in  the  city.  At  the  extreme  right  is  seen  the  weatherboarded 
side  of  the  old  log  store  of  CoRNELros  Voorhis,  a  portion  of  the  sign 
being  shown. 

The  "prairie  schooner"  is  drawn  by  a  typical  Mormon  team — three 
yoke  of  oxen  and  one  of  cows.  In  the  foreground  is  a  calf.  The 
emigration  authorities  of  the  Church  of  Latter  Day  Saints  required 
that  each  team  should  comprise  not  less  than  three  yoke  of  cattle,  one 
of  which  must  be  cows.  The  owner  of  the  team  here  depicted  more 
than  fulfilled  the  terms  prescribed.  It  will  be  observed  that,  in  addi- 
tion to  the  full  team,  he  has  an  additional  bovine  of  some  description 
on  the  off-side  of  one  of  the  pairs  in  the  team. 

The  drawing  from  which  the  cut  here  shown  was  produced  is  from 
a  photograph  now  in  the  possession  of  Mrs.  L.  S.  Hills,  of  Salt  Lake 
City,  Utah,  whose  husband  (Lewis  S.  Hills)  was  the  last  democratic 
Register  of  the  United  States  Land  OfSce  at  Council  Bluffs,  and  who 
emigrated  to  Salt  Lake  in  1861,  where  he  died,  July  21,  1915. 


POTTAWATTAMIE  COUNTY. 

Much  confusion  and  many  conflicting  statements  regarding  the  or- 
ganization of  Pottawattamie  County,  Iowa,  are  found  in  outstanding 
histories,  reference  to  each  and  all  of  which  in  this  work  is  not  deemed 
necessary  inasmuch  as  the  purpose  of  its  publication  is  to  present  facts 
pertaining  almost  exclusively  to  the  immediate  vicinity  of  the  city  of 
Council  Bluffs,  However,  the  organization  of  the  county  is  intimately 
connected  with  the  selection  and  history  of  its  capital  city,  respecting 
which  selection  very  little,  if  anything,  has  been  heretofore  published. 
In  a  ' '  History  of  Pottawattamie  County,  Iowa,  from  the  Earliest  His- 
toric Times  to  1907",  by  Homer  H.  Field  and  Hon.  Joseph  R.  Eeed, 
I  have  found  only  two  references  to  the  organization  of  the  county, 
viz.  : 

"Although  Pottawattamie  County  was  not  organized  until 
as  late  as  September,  1848,  its  real  history  begins  at  a  much 
earlier  date."     (See  page  1;  Volume  1.) 

On  page  10  of  the  same  work,  referring  to  a  later  date,  it  is  said : 

"With  the  end  of  Mormon  supremacy  the  people  began  to 
look  about  to  see  where  they  were.  The  county,  which  was 
much  larger  than  now,  was  reduced  to  its  present  size,  an 
election  was  held,  and  A.  H.  Perkins,  David  D.  Yearsly  and 
George  Coulson  were  elected  the  first  Commissioners.  The  first 
clerk  was  James  Sloan,  and  its  first  County  Judge  was  T. 
Burdick,  elected  in  1851." 

' '  The  Historical  Record,  a  Monthly  Periodical,  Devoted  Exclusively 
to  Historical,  Biographical,  Chronological  and  Statistical  Matters", 
is  the  title  of  a  Salt  Lake  City,  Utah,  publication,  edited  and  published 
by  Andrew  Jensen,  of  the  Latter  Day  Saints  Historian's  Office.  On 
page  899  of  Volume  8  of  that  work  is  found  the  following : 

"At  Kanesville  the  people  were  anxious  to  have  a  postoffice 
established  and  a  county  organization  extended  over  the  land 
on  wliich  they  had  settled.  At  some  meetings  held  in  January, 
1848,  a  pel  i1  ion  to  the  legislature  of  Iowa  was  numerously 
signed,  and  Andrew  II.  Perkins  and  Henry  W.  Miller  were 
ehoscn  delegates  to  carry  and  present  said  petition.  They 
attended  to  this  business  and  learned  that  the  legislature  had 


POTTAWATTAMIE    CX)UNTY  93 

made  provision  for  the  organization  whenever  the  judge  of  the 
4th  judicial  district  of  Iowa  should  decree  that  the  'public 
good  requires  such  organization'.  They  waited  upon  Judge 
Carrolton  at  Iowa  City,  who  informed  them  that  he  had  ap- 
pointed a  Mr.  Townsend  to  organize  said  County. ' ' 

On  page  900  of  the  work  last  cited,  reference  is  made  to  the  county 
organization,  as  follows: 

"In  March  (1848)  a  pastoffice  was  established  at  Kanesville, 
and  Brother  Evan  M.  Greene  received  the  appointment  of 
postmaster.  A  county  organization  was  also  obtained,  the 
county  being  called  Pottawattamie.  The  officers  were :  Isaac 
Clark,  judge  of  probate;  George  Coulson,  Andrew  H.  Perkins 
and  David  D.  Yearsley,  county  commissioners;  Thomas  Bur- 
dick,  county  clerk;  John  D.  Parker,  sheriff;  James  Sloan,  dis- 
trict clerk ;  Evan  M.  Greene,  recorder  and  treasurer ;  Jacob  G. 
Bigler,  William  Snow,  Levi  Bracken  and  Jonathan  C.  Wright, 
magistrates. ' ' 

Each  of  the  foregoing  extracts  speaks  for  itself.  Those  referring 
to  efforts  made  to  secure  a  county  organization,  as  well  as  those  which 
mention  such  organization  as  a  fact  accomplished  in  1848,  have  refer- 
ence to  a  temporary  organization  of  Pottawattamie  County,  pursuant 
to  an  act  of  the  State  Legislature  approved  February  24,  1847,  which 
provided  that: 

"The  country  embraced  within  the  limits  of  what  is  called 
the  Pottawattamie  purchase,  on  the  Missouri  river,  in  this  State, 
be,  and  the  same  may  be,  temporarily  organized  into  a  county, 
by  the  name  of  Pottawattamie,  at  any  time  when,  in  the  opinion 
of  the  judge  of  the  fourth  judicial  district,  the  public  good  may 
require  such  organization."  (Laws  of  Iowa,  1st  General  As- 
sembly of  the  State,  Chapter  Ixxxiv,  page  115.) 

Thus  the  county  was  to  embrace,  and  when  organized  did  embrace, 
all  of  the  territory  ceded  to  the  United  States  by  the  treaty  of  June 
5,  and  17,  1846,  which  had  theretofore  been  occupied  by  the  Potta- 
wattamie Indians.  As  said  in  the  portion  of  this  work  relating  to  the 
Pottawattamies,  the  eastern  part  of  the  northern  boundary  of  this 
territory  was  never  delimitated.  It  was  to  extend  from  a  point  on 
the  western  boundary  of  the  "lands  of  the  Sac  and  Fox  Indians" 
from  which  a  west  line  "would  strike  the  sources"  of  the  Little  Sioux 
river,  which  initial  point  was  never  exactly  ascertained ;  nor  were  the 
"sources"  of  the  Little  Sioux  river  ever  determined  in  connection 


94  EARLY  DAYS   AT   COUNCIL   BLUFFS 

with  the  treaty  of  1833,  at  Chicago,  by  which  the  Pottawattamie 
boundary  was  prescribed.  Assuming,  however,  that  the  "Second 
Correction  Line",  established  by  the  United  States  surveys  in  Iowa, 
approximates  the  "west  line"  prescribed  by  the  treaty,  which  would, 
with  the  other  lines  mentioned,  mark  out  an  area  of  about  five  million 
acres,  the  quantity  the  Indians  were  to  occupy,  it  will  be  seen  that, 
beginning  at  the  southwest  corner  of  Iowa  and  proceeding  eastward  by 
tiers  of  counties,  the  Pottawattamie  County  authorized  by  the  act  of 
1848  comprised  territory  within  the  present  counties,  viz. : 

"All  of  Fremont,  Page,  Taylor,  and  part  of  Ringgold;  All 
of  Mills,  Montgomery,  Adams,  and  part  of  Union ;  All  of  Potta- 
wattamie, and  parts  of  Cass  and  Adair ;  All  of  Harrison,  Shelby, 
Audubon,  and  part  of  Guthrie;  Part  of  Monona,  All  of  Craw- 
ford, and  part  of  Carroll ;  Part  of  Woodbury,  All  of  Ida,  and 
part  of  Sac." 

The  area  of  the  county  was  reduced  to  its  present  size  and  form  by 
the  legislative  act  approved  January  15,  1851.  (Laws  of  Iowa,  Regu- 
lar Session,  3d  General  Assembly,  Chapter  ix,  pages  27-28.) 

By  an  act  of  January  23,  1851  (Chapter  xxvi.  Laws  of  Iowa,  3d 
General  Assembly,  Regular  Session,  page  56),  provision  was  made  for 
the  selection  of  a  county  seat  for  Pottawattamie  County,  the  County 
Commissioners  being  directed  to  designate  two  places  to  be  voted  for 
as  such,  and  order  an  election  for  the  purpose.  Notices  of  the  places 
for  holding  the  election  were  to  be  posted  in  each  township  in  the 
county  and  published  in  the  "Frontier  Guardian".  The  following  is 
a  copy  of  the  published  notice : 

"NOTICE  OF  ELECTION. 

"Notice  is  hereby  given  that  on  the  first  Monday,  the  7th  day, 
of  April  next,  at  the  Warehouse  of  F.  J.  Wheeling,  in  the  pre- 
cinct of  Council  Bluffs,  in  the  County  of  Pottawattamie,  and  at 
William  H.  Gooch  &  Brother's  Warehouse,  on  Hyde  Street,  in 
Kanesville,  in  the  precinct  of  Kanesville,  in  said  County,  an 
election  will  be  held  to  establish  the  Seat  of  Justice  of  said 
(/ounty ;  that  Kanesville  is  one  of  the  plaees  to  be  ballotted  for, 
for  said  Seat  of  Justice,  the  oth«^r  is  at  the  residence  of  John  D. 
Parker,  at  Pleasant  Grove,  about  eight  miles  above  Kanesville, 
on  the  south  sirle  of  Big  Mosquito,  and  about  five  miles  from 
the  Indian  Mill.  Also  to  be  elected,  or  ballotted  for,  at  said 
election:  one  District  Judge  for  the  6th  Judicial  District  of 
the  State  of  Iowa;  one  School   Fund  Commissioner,  for  said 


POTTAWATTAMIE    COUNTY  95 

County;  one  Supervisor  of  Highways,  for  each  of  said  pre- 
cincts; and  as  many  Justices  of  the  Peace  and  Constables  for 
each  of  said  precincts  as  it  lacks  of  two  of  each. 

"Which  said  election  is  to  be  opened  at  nine  o'clock  in  the 
morning  and  continue  open  until  six  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  of 
the  same  day. 

T.  BuRDiCK,  Clerk  of  the 
Board  of  County  Commissioners. 
"Kanesville,  March  7,  1851. 

"N.  B. — By  a  late  Act  of  the  Legislature,  the  County  of 
Pottawattamie,  as  nearly  as  can  now  be  determined,  extends 
about  thirteen  miles  north,  eleven  south,  and  twenty-eight  east 
of  Kanesville.  Voters  within  these  limits  are  entitled  to  vote 
for  the  county  seat."  (Frontier  Guardian,  March  7,  1851; 
page  2.) 

The  result  of  the  election  thus  provided  for  was  reported  in  the 
Frontier  Guardian  of  April  18,  1851  (page  2),  as  follows: 

"ELECTION 

'  *  The  first  Monday  of  April,  Inst.,  was  the  most  disagreeable 
and  stormy  day  that  we  have  ever  witnessed  in  this  country. 
It  began  to  rain  on  Sunday  night,  and  continued  to  rain  in- 
cessantly until  about  12  o'clock  on  Monday ;  then  it  snowed  and 
froze  severely;  and,  consequently,  we  had  a  very  light  vote  to 
what  would  have  been  given  if  the  day  had  been  fine ;  yet,  un- 
favorable as  the  day  was,  quite  a  goodly  number  turned  out  at 
the  election,  the  final  result  of  which  is  officially  given  below. 
"Pottawattamie  County  and  Precincts,  or  dependencies: 
For  Judge  of  the  Sixth  Judicial  District ;  for  James  Sloan, 
406  ;  for  Christopher  P.  Brown,  71 ; 

' '  Fremont  County : 

"For  James  Sloan,  7;  for  Christopher  P.  Brown,  91;  for 
Burton,  2. 

"No  returns  from  any  other  county. 

"E.  M.  Greene,  Esq.,  was  elected  County  Clerk  without  op- 
position, in  place  of  James  Sloan,  resigned. 

"Calvin  R.  Clark  was  elected  School  Fund  Commissioner. 

' '  Kanesville  elected  Seat  of  Justice ;  only  seven  votes  cast 
against  it. 

"William  Vanosdale  and  Jacob  Degraw  elected  Justices  of 
the  Peace  for  Kanesville  Precinct. 

"William  H.  Gooch  and  Roswell  Ferry,  Constables  for  Kanes- 
ville Precinct. 


96  EARLY  DAYS  AT  COUNCIL  BLUFFS 

"For   Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction:     William   G. 
Woodward,   397;   Thomas   H.   Benton,   Jr.,    51;   William  W. 

Spencer,  5.  " 

In  so  far  as  the  writer  of  this  work  is  informed  the  information  rela- 
tive to  the  county-seat  election,  and  election  of  officers  mentioned,  has 
never  been  recorded  in  any  of  the  numerous  histories  of  Iowa,  or  of 
Pottawattamie  County,  heretofore  published. 

A  discrepancy  respecting  the  temporary  organization  of  the  county 
under  the  act  of  1848  appears  between  the  statements  made  in  the 
Field  and  Reed  History  and  those  of  the  "Historical  Record",  above 
cited.  The  former  places  it  in  September  and  the  latter  in  March^ 
1848. 

The  office  of  the  County  Clerk  of  Pottawattamie  County  was 
destroyed  by  fire  sometime  in  the  "fifties",  and  practically  all  of  its 
records  went  up  in  smoke.  Inasmuch  as  the  matter  published  in  the 
"Historical  Record"  is  based  upon  records  kept  at  the  time  by 
oflScials  of  the  Mormon  Church,  who  were  on  the  ground,  it  would 
appear  that  the  information  contained  in  it  is  the  more  reliable  of 
the  conflicting  allegations. 


THE  LIBRARY 
UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 

Santa  Barbara 


THIS  BOOK  IS  DUE  ON  THE  LAST  DATE 
STAMPED  BELOW. 


S«TifH04H'J 


